King Lightning
by Enigmaris
Summary: Harry Potter had gone missing from the wizarding world when he was just 4 years old. Despite everyone's frantic searching the boy is still missing the summer of his 11th birthday. Severus Snape feeling guilty for not protecting the boy decides to go search for potions ingredients in the forbidden forest, to clear his head. He's been needing snake parts anyway.
1. Potions Ingredients and Wyverns

Severus Snape was a rather stressed out potions master. It had been over 7 years since Harry Potter had disappeared from his relative's home. The small boy had only been four when he had gone missing. Albus had sent many old order members to investigate and found out that the boy had been horribly abused. The uncle had beaten him often and the aunt was emotionally abusive. There was no telling what things they said to the boy or why he had left.

The assumption made by everyone was that the boy had run away. The problem was that no one knew where. They had scoured the neighborhoods, the school, the nearby adoption centers and the boy never showed up. They knew the boy was alive since the alarm Albus had set up to monitor his magical core was still active but the boy was nowhere to be found.

Albus had kept them searching for these seven years but everyone agreed they would just have to wait for the boy to turn eleven. That summer before his eleventh birthday they would be able to send an owl to invite him to Hogwarts. The boy would hopefully reply and they would be able to find him. Snape had been there when the owl had returned without an answer.

The letter had been delivered and accepted but no answer was given. This was the cause of stress for Severus Snape. He had sworn to protect the boy and he had failed spectacularly. So he decided he would go someplace to relax. He needed to go into the forbidden forest and gather potion ingredients. Things like snake eggs and venom. It would take a week to gather everything he wanted so Severus Snape decided to head out.

"Albus." Snape said. "I need to gather potion ingredients. I am almost out of ashwinder venom. I should return in a week. If you require me to return send a patronous and I will return as soon as I receive it."

"Alright my dear boy." Albus said distractedly. "Have fun."

So Snape had left with nothing but an expandable bag and his wand. The expandable bag contained enough food for the journey and all the vials and containers he would need for the potions ingredients. The first day had been calm, he had gathered wild herbs and plants easily. He was met with little difficulty.

The second day was just as safe except that he had not been able to find any ashwinder habitats. They had become more and more scarce the past 6 years and the last year Snape had had to lower himself to buying the venom. That was both a hassle and expensive this year he was determined to find one of the snakes.

That second night was when things changed drastically. He was setting up camp for the night when he heard the cry of a predator he feared the most. Wyverns were nasty magical creatures. They were dragons that loved to hunt people. Most dragon species desired to be left alone but Wyverns would seek out people to eat them. A wyvern had found him.

If you were watching from a distance you would have said that Snape acquitted himself well against the beast. He injured it in a few spots and might have won if it had been day time. It was night however and his lack of good night vision made the battle a win for the Wyvern. Just as Snape was preparing to have his last moments though someone intervened. Snape from his vantage point could see the form of a small child, maybe 9 or 10 running towards him.

Snape was pinned down by the claws of the Wyvern so he was amazed when the boy jumped right up and climbed up the dragon's arm. The boy began yelling in a language he did not recognize and glowing with magic power. The Wyvern in fear stepped off of Snape and cowered. The giant beast _cowered_! The boy jumped of the Wyvern and with a wave of his hand sent the creature flying.

Snape sat up but before he could speak to his rescuer the boy had fled. Snape did not sleep well that night. What was a small child like that doing this deep in the forbidden forest? How had he helped him and an even better question why? Who was he? Snape healed himself of the bruises from the wyvern attack. He tried to sleep but his mind had latched onto a puzzle and would not let go.

That morning Snape continued his search for snake parts. He couldn't help but hope that he would see that boy again. The day was quiet he even managed to find a unicorn willing to donate some tail hairs. The only thing he could not find was anything snake related. Not even a nonmagical garden snake was to be seen.

The fourth day was when he hit a breakthrough. He met a group of centaurs.

"Severus Snape." Roan said. "What brings you so deep into the forest?"

"I am in search of snake parts for potion ingredients. I have been unable to find any snakes at all."

"They have congregated together near the center of the forest. Their new leader is situated there and they wish to be close." He answered with an annoyed tone of voice.

It was one of the few times in the world that a centaur gave anyone a straight answer. That was however the only straight answer he got. Snape decided he would travel to the center of the forest in hopes of finding any snake at all. It was the fifth day when he began to have luck. He saw them, snakes, dozens of snakes but they all ran from him.

He was frustrated it was as if the snakes were trying to get him to play some demented form of chase. It was the middle of the fifth day when he saw it. It being the strangest house he had ever seen. It was a series of treehouses connected by rope bridges. The houses were formed from the tree themselves, which meant they were clearly magical. Along the ground were numerous flat stones that were in the direct path of the sun. Snakes were sunning themselves everywhere but Snape did not notice that. He was too distracted by the housing complex high in the air.

Was this where that strange little boy lived? No humans lived in the forbidden forest according to Snape's knowledge but this was clearly a human type residence. Snape was stunned when he saw a large ashwinder slither right past him with a rabbit in one of its mouths.

Ashwinders were strange snakes. They had three heads and only one contained their venom. You could never tell which one it was which made getting their venom rather annoying. Snape watched as the snake went over to a basket and dropped the rabbit inside. Then the snake hissed and as if by magic (it probably was) the basket zoomed up towards the treehouse. The basket lowered itself back down again.

Except this time inside the basket was the boy who had saved his life just two days ago. The boy was looking at him in curiosity as if he had never truly seen another person before. The boy had a large yellow snake that was certainly not native to the British Isles around his neck. The snake kissed at the boy and the boy hissed back.

 _Parseltongue._

Snape's breath hitched he had not heard that noise in over a decade and hearing it come out of a little child's mouth scared him. The boy got out of the basket and walked up to Snape. The boy now that Snape could look at him was rather interesting.

Scraggily long black messy hair that was more like a birds nest than anything else surrounded a dirty face and wide green eyes. They looked familiar but Snape could not place it. The boy was wearing animal hides for clothing and was either very well tanned or completely covered in dirt. The boy opened his mouth but closed it again. It seemed like he wanted to say something but was unsure as to how.

"Hello." Snape said deciding to start.

"Hi." The boy said. "Who are you?"

The boy spoke as if he was unsure how to. It seemed as if the boy lived alone with just snakes. That might mean he spoke English rarely and might not even be sure how to communicate.

"My name is Severus Snape. Who are you?" Snape answered with more patience than he thought he was capable of

The boy scrunched up his face and seemed to be thinking hard.

"Freak, my name is freak."

"That can't possibly be your name!" Snape exclaimed.

"That's what they used to call me before I popped away. The snakes call me Lightning."

"I will also call you Lightning then." Snape said he refused to call anyone freak.

"Okay Sev-rus." Lightning said. "Why are you here?"

Snape ignored the mispronunciation of his name and decided to move onto something more interesting.

"I will tell you why I am here if you tell me why you are here."

The boy stared at him for a moment before hissing to the large yellow snake. The snake hissed back after a moment.

"You go first. Glade says if I go first you might not tell me."

Snape raised his eyebrow at the yellow snake who was gazing at him curiously. He cleared his throat and decided it hardly mattered.

"I am here searching for snakes to get their venom, skin and egg shells to use as potion ingredients."

"What are potions?" The boy asked warily.

"Potions are magical drinks that can help people." Snape defined as best as he could.

"Magic? You can do magic?!" The boy said jumping up and down. "Show me! I've never met anyone else who can do bad freakish things like me."

 _So the boy is a muggleborn then. Interesting._

"I will show you some magic if you tell me why you are here."

"I live here. One day when I was hiding from my family I wished really really hard to be someplace safe and I popped here."

"How long ago was that Lightning?"

"A long time ago. I've been here for forever, I hardly remember where I was before I lived here." Lightning answered after thinking for a bit. "Now show me magic!"

Normally petulant and demanding children made Snape's skin crawl but this boy was different. Not only had he saved his life but the boy was most likely abused and did not need to see Snape angry. For these reasons he kept his face calm and removed his wand. Deciding on something simple his used the levitation charm to lift up a rock. The boy squealed in delight.

"Glade said there were others like me but I didn't believe her."

"There are thousands like us." Snape informed him. "How old are you?"

"I'm not sure. Sir and Ma'am never told me when my birthday was."

"Sir and Ma'am?" Snape asked although he already knew.

"My family I had to call them sir and ma'am." Lightning said suddenly the boy stiffened and looked to the sky.

"Drake is coming."

"Who?"

"The big dragon that I fought for you. He is coming."

Snape instantly got into a fighting position. The boy looked at him funny.

"You do not fight you go up into home. I will defend it is my job."

"You are merely a boy." Snape said.

"I defend my snakes."

Later Snape would realize that he had said things very similar as that to different teachers. At that time though all he knew was that he was being pushed into the basket. The basket was charmed to grow to fit whatever it was supposed to hold. It grew in size just as Snape was pushed inside. He was then handed the yellow snake and the basket was flown into the air.

Snape angrily crawled out of the basket trying to find a way down when he saw that all the snakes were fleeing. He saw the Wyvern land in front of Harry and snap at him. If there was any conversation between the two Snape did not hear it. Instead he watched as the boy used magic expertly without a wand. The boy's hand simmered with unused power and the boy pounced on the Wyvern. The boy used physical attacks instead of spells but each hit was backed up with his magic. The Wyvern used his claws to scratch at Lightning's but the boy didn't seem to notice. Finally the boy hit the Wyvern straight in the eye causing him to rear back. The Wyvern flew away and the boy sat down on the ground.

Snakes came out of hiding and surrounded the boy in what seemed to be like congratulations. The snakes seemed happy but Snape really had no clue. He waited for the boy to come up to the house. Suddenly the basket rushed down and carried the boy up with him.

"That was quite a battle Lightning."

"Thank you Sevrus." Lightning said as he wobbled out of the basket.

That was when Severus said the wounds. They were three long deep scratches along the boy's chest.

"You are hurt! Let me help you." Snape said kneeling down to be eye level with the boy.

"Help me?" The boy said as the concept itself was foreign. "Why would you want to help me? No one helps me if they are human."

"How many humans do you even know?" Snape asked.

"Not many. There's you and then my family. They wouldn't let me talk to other people."

"Do you not think that I might be different from them?"

"Maybe. I can't really tell."

"Let me use magic to heal your cuts so they don't bleed too much."

"Magic can do that?" Lightning said amazed. "Show me."

So Snape used a spell to clean the cuts and then close them. The boy gaped at him and then gave him the first smile he had seen on the boy. Suddenly an ashwinder came up to the boy and began hissing seriously. The boy hissed back easily and confidently. Extremely differently from the way he spoke in English where he was slow and uncertain. The snake left and returned momentarily with three eggs in each mouth. The boy took each carefully and held them carefully.

He took the first egg and let his hands begin to glow with magic. Snape watched in extreme interest as the boy took each egg and surrounded it with his magic. Snape had never seen an ashwinder egg close up before. The snakes were extremely protective of their eggs and would not let anything near them. The fact that the boy was holding them and using magic on them made Snape curious. Finally each egg was done and the ashwinder bowed and left.

"What just happened?"

"I blessed their offspring. I blessed them with protection from egg breakers and strength in battle and venom."

"You can do that?"

"Yes. I can bless any snake still in the egg with whatever his parents desire if they ask it of me."

"You do this for free?"

"No I want something. That one is going to get me human writing equipment. He lives near the glowing castle and says he knows where to find some."

"The glowing castle?"

"There's a huge castle that glows with magic that way." Lightning said pointing in the direction of Hogwarts. "I've seen it from afar a couple of times but I'm too scared to go there. Too many people. Anyway he said if I blessed his hatchlings he would retrieve something from the school."

"I live in that castle." Snape offered as he tried to digest that information.

"What is it, the castle? I thought people didn't live in castles anymore."

"The castle is called the Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. It's a school for young magic users to come and learn how to control their gift. I teach there."

"My family said I was too stupid for school." Lightning offered after a moment of staring at him.

"Nonsense you are obviously strong enough magically to attend when you are old enough."

"Do you have to know how to read and write?"

"Yes." Snape said.

"Well then I can't go. I don't know anything. I can barely speak the human tongue." The conversation was interrupted when the boy's stomach began to growl.

Snape smirked at the boy who had the sense to blush.

"It is time for feasting. Do you have food or do you need some?"

"I have enough food. Do you?"

"Would you like to see the den of food?"

Snape nodded and followed the boy across a couple of rope bridges until they were in a decidedly cool room. It had game meat that was prepared for human consumption. There was some fruit things like apples that would grow in the forest as well as bags of grain.

"I learned to grow food with magic. The den of growing holds all the plants. The snakes will often bring me gifts to show their loyalty and I like to search the trees in the summer for food." Lightning explained.

"May I see the den of growing?" Snape asked not even trying to give it a proper name.

The boy nodded and took him across another bridge to a room that was decidedly hot. It was clearly charmed to stay warm like the greenhouses at the school. The room had many things growing in it, things like corn and wheat. It also had things like tomato and potato plants. The boy had clear skills when it came to herbology.

"Ma'am made me work in the garden and she would be upset if things didn't grow right. When I popped here I decided to make my own garden."

"This is impressive. Why do live in the trees?"

"It is safer. Only really big things like the dragon attack me now but when I first showed up things would come out of the woods all the time to try and hurt me. High up here though nobody can get up here unless they can fly or speak the snake tongue."

They went back to the den of food and the boy gathered enough for a decent meal. They went to another room that was the equivalent of the dining room/ kitchen. There were no chairs and Snape watched as the boy prepared his meal on a stone. Apparently complex transfiguration and conjuring is not something the boy had learned.

"Lightning. Would you like me to use magic to create a table and some chairs?"

"You can do that?"

"Yes child I can. Would you like me to show you how?"

The boy nodded and watched in fascination as Snape waved his wand and conjured two comfortable chairs and a table. The boy looked delighted at the modern things he had been unable to make himself. The boy sat down on one of the chairs and sighed.

"Thank you Sevrus. I always thought I would never have my own furniture."

"Not at all Lightning." Snape said taking a seat while removing things from his bag.

"How did you fit so much stuff in there?"

"It's called an expanding charm it expands the space in an object so it can hold a lot more than it normally would."

"That's amazing!"

"Quite."

The boy went over to the fire pit he had in the other end of the room and pulled out a goat stomach. The only reason Snape knew that was because he had opened up a lot of goats looking for bezoars. He saw the boy stuff the goat stomach with water, rabbit meat and potato pieces. Apparently the boy was making a stew. The boy stuck his hand out and focused until a fire burst into life along the logs. Snape was amazed at the control of the magic the boy had despite not having a wand.

The boy returned and sat down on the chair to wait for the stew to cook. Snape removed a sandwich and two bottles containing pumpkin juice. He handed one to the boy who stared at it bewilderment.

"What?"

"It's a drink called pumpkin juice try it."

"How?"

Snape opened the bottle for the boy and watched as he took a tentative sip. The boys eyes widened and he took a giant swig.

"That is amazing."

"We drink it all the time at Hogwarts."

Snape had now made it his mission to get the boy to come to Hogwarts with him. The boy had life here but if he could convince him that life at Hogwarts would be better then the boy would come with him.

"What do you teach at Hogwarts?"

"Potions. I teach children how to make potions."

"Is that why you were looking for snake parts right? So you could make potions that help people?"

"Yes, Lightning that was why I was here."

"I could get you some stuff maybe. I know there are some snakes that need to let their venom go soon their fangs are aching."

Snape's mission was forgotten as he watched the boy go outside and return in about five minutes carrying four snakes of various sizes. He was a Slytherin after all.

"Are these okay or do you need a special kind of snake?"

"No those would be fine."

"How do you carry the venom?"

"In these vials. Just fill them up."

The boy took vial after vial and milked the snakes. The ashwinder had so much venom he filled three vials with just that. Once all the snakes had given what they were willing Harry let his glowing hand go over them. They left and slithered out.

"What did you give them?"

"Depends on what they wanted. One of them wanted a blessing of luck in finding a mate. One wanted extra hunting skills." The boy said. "The blessings don't last as long if I don't do it with the egg but simple stuff works well enough."

"I see." Snape said.

With that the boy rushed over to the fire and removed the goat stomach. He summoned a wooden bowl that was clearly carved by hand. The boy poured out the stew and put out the fire with a wave of his hand.

The boy sat down and began to eat his meal. Snape watched as the boy sipped his soup obviously not having utensils. After he was done Snape began a new conversation.

"Lightning." Snape said. "Would you like to come to the castle with me? You would be able to study magic and meet other people like you."

"No!" The boy shouted fearful. "They would just hurt me. You're the only person I've ever met that hasn't hurt me. People at that castle would try and hurt me I know it!"

The boy looked on the verge of panic attack so Snape lifted up his hands.

"No need to worry, Lightning. I won't force you to leave your home. I just thought you would like to meet other wizards."

"No. I like my snakes. They are really very nice and I understand them, People are mean."

Snape, who knew well about the cruelties of man said nothing to argue that point.

"Would you like to stay here for the night? It is safer than the forest floor as long as you don't mind snakes."

"Where do you sleep?"

"The den of rest, follow me."

He followed the boy and saw the largest room was filled with random things. Gifts from snakes the boy said. Shiny rocks and human objects. In the center was a pile of animal pelts piled on top of each other to make a large bed. The floor of the room was charmed to be warm to the touch and snakes were lazing all around.

"Don't the snakes fight?"

"No it's against the rules. There is no fighting in the den of rest. If you fight in there you can't come back."

"I would be happy to accept and stay the night here."

"Alright Sevrus. I am going to go into the woods for now. You can go anywhere you want. The baskets won't work for you so if you want to come down call for me and I'll get them to work."

With that the boy left and Snape began his exploration. There was a bedroom hut, kitchen hut, storage room, and a greenhouse that he had already seen. There was a few more rooms he hadn't been to. He took the appropriate rope bridges and found himself in a room that he assumed was the bathroom. It contained what would could be called a rudimentary wooden tub. There was right next to the tub a basket that could move up and down into a stream below. The boy had a way to clean himself then. That was interesting.

The next room was something Snape was unsure of its use. There were burn marks along the walls. Maybe he used it as a training room. Snape went back to the 'den of growing' and studied the garden. It was rather unorganized but it was well taken care of. As the sun began to set the boy returned.

"We must rest when the sun goes down."

"Alright Lightning."

So they went to the den of resting. Snape conjured two blankets and handed one to the boy who looked ecstatic at the gift. They laid down and Snape found the bed to be rather comfortable. Finally they both fell asleep. Snape woke up to find the room empty except for the snakes. Snape got up and heard shouting in the final hut. He went over there to find the boy practicing magic.

The boy used his hands to conjure fire and blast it at different angles. He was clearly practiced in control but it was the amount of power in the boy that awed Snape. He really needed to get the boy to Hogwarts. The boy jumped when he saw Snape and the flames instantly disappeared.

"Hello Sevrus. Would you like me to help you out of the forest?"

Snape liked that idea, although he wasn't sure why.

"Yes Lightning that would be nice."

"I just don't want my friend to get hurt. Drake was pretty angry with me."

"The Wyvern? You can talk to him?"

"Yes he speaks a slightly different version of the snake language. He doesn't like me much and I don't like him."

"Very well. I need to start heading back to the school."

"I can take you there safely."

They began the journey and Snape merely followed the boy as he walked through the forest comfortably and calmly. Snape always had to be on guard when traveling through the forest alone but it seemed the boy was well known enough to make dangerous things move out of the way. They met the centaurs and Lightning hid behind him.

"Snake king."

"Yes Roan." The boy answered back warily

"It is time to accept." Roan urged. "The planets and stars are clear you must prepare."

"I will not. I can prepare here just as well as anywhere else." Lightning said. "Let's go Sevrus."

After they were gone from the centaurs Snape asked the boy what it was about.

"Roan thinks I need to return to the human world and complete my destiny. I don't want to. Humans have done very little for me. You're the first nice one I've met. I have no reason to return to people when people are just going to be mean and scary. Snakes are nicer."

"Do you know what your destiny is?"  
"No Roan says it would interfere too much with the future to tell me. All I know is that it is very important."

Lightning would say no more on the matter. He led him through parts of the forest he had never been. The path was almost nonexistent but it was smooth and safe. At the end of the day Snape knew he was quite close to Hogwarts.

"I will stay with you for the night and then head home." Lightning said making a decision.

"Here let me share some of my food with you."

Lightning loved bread. Snape could tell by the look of delight when he bit into the sandwich. That night he slept peacefully and on the morning of the seventh day he said goodbye to the strange little boy. Before he left the boy said something.

"Next time you need Snake parts come visit me. If you have something I want I will get you whatever you want in the forest. If you want to visit too that's fine." Lightning said. "You can pop with magic right?"

"I can." Snape said.

"Well then just pop to my home if you need anything. If I am not there when you arrive I will show up eventually."

"I will make sure and visit you, Lightning."

"Good bye Sevrus."

Then the boy disappeared. Snape went back to the castle to tell the headmaster about the boy he had found. He could not believe he had that kind of an adventure inside that forest. He walked up to the doors of the castle deep in thought.

 **Well that's chapter one. This story came to me when i was considering all the ways things would've turned out differently if Harry had just run away. This is going to be a pretty long story, i hope you enjoy reading it as much as i did creating it. Reviews are always appreciated even if it is only to tell me i have a typo!**


	2. Another Visit, Another Human

Lightning hoped Severus would visit soon. He liked Severus he was dead useful and it was nice to speak to another one of his kind. The man had also brought up many things he had not thought about in a long time. The first thing the man had asked him was what his name was. It was strange to think that he didn't know.

The snakes called him the lightning king for the lightning bolt scar on his head. He didn't know where that had come from either. Speaking in English was not something he did often and he often had problems remembering what words he was supposed to use. The man was even a freak like himself. Except he used a stick to do magic.

Maybe the stick was like a wand? Didn't wizards use wands? He could vaguely recall hearing somewhere once that wizards used wands. Something his family told him maybe. He didn't need a wand so it hardly mattered.

He didn't even mind that Severus had forced him to fight the Dragon twice. Normally he would avoid the Wyvern rather than attack but he had won both times so it wasn't a huge problem. He had slowed down and walked along the ground to lead Severus through the woods. On the way back he went through the trees at least until he was close enough to pop back. When he was just a little boy and learning how to survive in the woods he had found that traveling between the trees was easier.

He could only pop certain distances, too far and he would pass out. He had spent a lot of his free time practicing so that he could go farther and farther with each pop. When the sun was at its highest he felt he was close enough to pop back. He popped right back into his home. He went back to the den of eating to look at the chair and table the man had left. They were some of the most comfortable things he had ever owned.

Lightning had been amazed at the display of magic the man could do. Lightning could see the magic in things. The man's wand glowed brightly, every living thing in the forest glowed to a certain extent in their center to show that they were alive and Severus glowed very brightly. Maybe that's because he could use magic. The chairs now glowed slightly because they had been made through magical means.

It made them even prettier. Lightning went to the den of resting and took a nap. After that he worked in his garden in between speaking with the snakes. They were worried about the human who had come and visited. Would he return and try and take their hatchlings?

That was something Lightning had not considered. The man did say he used snake parts in his potions. Did he kill snakes? He promised the worried snakes that as their king he would not allow the potions human to use their parts unwillingly for his magic. Then a few more snakes came to pledge themselves to him.

Glade was the first snake Lightning ever met. He had been in the forest for a week when he met the snake. She had seen him, a child, so scared and hungry and offered him aid. She hunted for him until he could do it himself and taught him all about the snake magics. He had learned that snakes had their own kind of magic that he could use to a larger degree because he was a human who spoke the snake language.

As the years flew by and he created more of his home snakes from all over the forest came and pledged themselves to him. Glade had explained that snakes would pledge themselves to the most powerful human snake speaker they met. As they were extremely rare Lightning had a lot of subjects.

Glade had not liked Lightning's old name. She said a powerful dignified human snake speaker should not speak of himself in such a way. She saw the scar and named him Lightning. As more and more snakes pledged themselves they started calling him 'king lightning' or 'master lightning'.

The garden was doing well and the magic he had used to keep the room warm and wet helped things grow very well. He ate the remains of the stew for dinner and slept. The next few days were spent how he always spent them. He spent the mornings practicing snake magic under the tutelage of the magic snakes. The afternoon he spent meeting with snakes he had favors to ask, exploring the forest and doing the household chores.

When a week passed by he heard the abnormal sharp crack of someone popping to see him. It was the afternoon and he had been working with the garden making sure everything was healthy. He heard Severus calling for him from the ground.

"Lightning? Are you in?"

Lightning left the den of growing and walked over to the platform that was used for entrances and looked down. There was Severus dressed in dark clothing. There was also another man there. The other man was ancient, he had white hair and a long white beard. He glowed so brightly that it scared Harry. This man was a powerful wizard despite his age and colorful dress.

"Hello Sevrus." Lightning called down unwilling to go down while the stranger was there.

"Lightning, I brought a friend from Hogwarts with me, his name is Albus Dumbledore. He wants to meet the boy who saved my life."

"Why?"

"He wants to thank you." Severus yelled up after a moment.

Lightning considered this. Glade who had shown up during their talk looked at him.

 _"_ _Do you think I should meet this powerful wizard mother? He glows more brightly than I."_

 _"_ _I smell no hint of aggression or anger from either of the two legs. The black two legs is nervous and the old two legs is excited. I sense no ill will toward you my hatchling. Go down and greet them. I shall come with you."_ Glade said after looking down at the men and smelling them with her tongue.

"I'm coming down Sevrus."

Lightning had given up trying to correctly pronounce Severus' name. It had to many r's and v's to make it easy to pronounce. The snake language only had a few noises so the human tongue was a difficult process for Lightning.

Lightning crawled into the basket with Glade around his neck. He hissed for it to go down and let the basket lower him to the ground. He climbed out of the basket and made a few steps towards the two men.

"Hello Sevrus. How was the castle?"

"It was nice. There is a lot of work needed to be done to prepare for the returning children."

"My subjects had a question. Do you kill snakes for your potions? Cause they are afraid for their hatchlings. They have asked me to protect them from all enemies."

Severus looked stunned at the question. He thought for a moment before answering.

"My potions only use things that snakes leave around like snake skins, venom, or their egg shells. I do not kill snakes for my potions."

Lightning nodded while Glade whispered in his ear.

 _"_ _He tells the truth hatchling. Your kingdom need not fear the dark two legs. I can feel the power of the old two legs. You must be wary."_

 _"_ _Yes mother."_

"Hello, Albus." Lightning said with a touch of fear in his voice.

"Hello my boy. I would like to thank you for saving Severus' life. It must not have been easy to fight that Wyvern."

"Drake is justmean. He knows better than to attack anything in my kingdom. It was not hard to scare him away."

"Who taught you to use that kind of magic?"

"Mother taught me. She and the other snakes are very good with snake magic."

"Your mother?" Severus asked.

"Glade." Lightning said while petting the large yellow snake that was curled around his body.

Glade was a yellow boa who had been bought by a stupid wizard to keep as a pet at the school. She had left him and went to live in the woods after the stupid boy had tried to feed her a carrot. That was just offensive to all snake kind. She had found Lightning alone in the woods looking so scared and had helped him. Over the years she had grown until she was quite large. She was almost 8 feet in length and enjoyed using her length to frighten younger snakes.

She curled around her two legged hatchling so that her head was resting on his shoulder and the rest of her was around his waist and chest. She glared at the two men to show her strength.

"Why did you call her your mother?" Severus asked.

"She is my mother. She raised me from a hatchling once I popped into the woods."

"It is a pleasure to meet you madam." Albus said inclining his head to the female snake.

Glade bobbed her head back before laughing at the strangeness of two legs. Lightning stood there for a moment before trying to figure out what else they wanted.

"Did you need anything Sevrus?"

"Albus expressed interest in seeing your home."

Lightning turned back to the older man and stared at him. His blue eyes twinkled at him and he screamed power which meant he was to be feared. Glade had told him often that two legs got more powerful with age. Lightning wanted to ensure that was true.

"Do humans get more powerful as they get older?"

"Yes. Why do you ask Lightning?" Albus answered.

"You are a very very powerful human. It is scary to see so much power inside of you. I wanted to know how so I asked."

"Can you see my core?" Albus asked excitedly.

"Core? What is a core?"  
"When you look at me can you see a large glowing oval inside of me?" He asked again.

"I can see that in everyone. Yours is just really really big."

"Wonderful my boy! You are going to be a very powerful wizard one day."

"Mother says I already am. I am powerful enough to protect my kingdom."

"Your kingdom?" Severus asked.

"I am King Lightning. All snakes you see here have pledged themselves to me as the most powerful snake speaker they have met. I protect all snakes within my domain."

"Lightning, may I have a tour of your house?" Albus asked after a moment.

"Don't do any magic without asking. Some of the snakes don't like human magic."

"I promise no magic unless I receive permission."

"Okay. Just get into the basket."

Lightning watched as the old man climbed into the basket with an ease he shouldn't be capable of. He told the basket to go up in the snake tongue and to return once Albus had left it. It lowered itself and Severus got in as well. The basket lifted him and then returned to take Lightning up.

Once he was up he began the tour of his home. He took them to the den of growing and the den of food. Each den was in a separate tree and connected by rope bridges. He took them to the den of feasting, then the den of resting and finally the den of cleaning and the den of training. The tour ended and they sat down in the den of feasting.

"Lightning may I conjure another chair so we can talk?"

"Okay."

Albus conjured a cushioned purple chair that looked out of place in the tree house. He sat down and the other two followed seat. Before Albus could talk a blue magical snake entered. It slithered directly up to Lightning and spoke.

 _"_ _King Lightning. I have returned and have an offering for you."_

 _"_ _What have you brought me, Slicer?"_

 _"_ _In my journeyings for a mate I found a magical stick that is similar to the one other two legs use, a few shiny stones, a goat stone and some metal. I have brought all with me to give to you as a show of thanks. I found a mate her name is Lyla."_

 _"_ _Congratulations Slicer! I am proud of you. Come and let me bless you with fertility so that you and your mate may have many hatchlings."_

 _"_ _Thank you King Lightning."_

Lighting picked up the blue snake and let his magic flow into his hands. He let the magic cover the snake and then imprinted it into his scales so that the blessing would stay. He put the snake down.

"I will be right back. Slicer has a few gifts for me."

"Take your time."


	3. A Friend?

**Chapter 3! This one covers quite a bit of time but I think it explains things pretty well. I hope you are enjoying everything so far. Reviews are always appreciated and welcome.**

Severus was overjoyed that the child had allowed Albus to visit. He had been afraid that the boy would be unwilling.

"Severus. This boy is truly amazing. His core is large enough to be mistaken for an adult. With training and time he could easily outpace me." Albus said excitedly. "He created this entire place using what he called snake magic. It is amazing. Charms to keep a room a certain temperature, charms to make the floor and walls fire proof. Levitation charms on the expandable baskets."

"I wonder what that snake brought with him." Severus said.

"I wonder what that blessing was that he gave the snake." Albus said back. "I am just so excited. All this time such a powerful young wizard living right underneath our noises."

Lightning returned with his hands full. He had a wand, a few stones, a couple of Galleons, and a bezoar. He put them on the table to the side and focused his attention back on us.

"What blessing did you give that snake?" Albus asked.

"He just returned from a journey to find a mate. His kind of snake travels the world until they find the perfect mate. He found things he wanted to give me and I blessed him with magic to help him have many hatchlings with his beloved."

"Do you do that often?"

"Blessings of fertility?" Lightning asked. "Not often. His kind are rare in the world. They were hunted by humans for their parts. I want to ensure there are many of them in the future."

"What is his kind?"

"Humans called his kind the Asclepius snake." Lightning answered after a moments thought. "According to Slicer humans believe his kind to be extinct but his ancestors went into hiding years ago. His parent came out of hiding to have me bless their eggs four seasons ago. I blessed them all with magical strength, physical strength, strength in regeneration, and everything else they would need to survive into adulthood. I wanted them to live long enough to have hatchlings of their own."

"That is very thoughtful of you Lightning."

"I had heard rumors that that species was returning but had dismissed them. Where did Slicer go to find his mate?"

"He told me that he felt she was living far away. He used his magic to travel over the ocean a long time. I don't know where he went but she agreed to return here and live within my protection."

"Slicer brought back a wand." Severus noted.

"You mean this glowing stick? Yes he thought that since other magical two legs used it I might want it. I don't know why I would want it but I'll keep it." Lightning said grabbing the intricate wand.

"Don't wave that around!" Severus yelped.

It was too late. The boy waved the wand and caused the room to shake as a magical wind began whipping around them. The boy dropped the wand and waved his hands to get it to stop.

"Sorry. I won't be using that anymore. Too dangerous." Lightning said while gently picking up the wand and setting it down on the table.

"Did you want anything else Severus?" Lightning asked.

"No. I just came by for a visit. I believe Albus has something he wants to ask you."

Lightning turned and looked at Albus who cleared his throat.

"My boy I wanted to invite you to Hogwarts."

"I don't want to go."

"My boy I could train you."

"Mother trains me."

"You could meet other people your age."

"Humans scare me."

"You could learn to better defend your snakes."

"If I leave there will be no one defending them while I am gone. I have hatchlings who cannot run."

Severus could tell this was going to be the beginning of a long argument so he interrupted.

"Lightning. Would you mind if we ate now? I have some more things I would like for you to try."

The boy nodded and watched in excitement as Severus removed a plate that had a piece of chocolate cake. The boys eyes widened in recognition.

"Sir and Ma'am always told me I could never have that kind of food. It wasn't for freaks like me."

"Last time I was here I told you that you were not a freak." Severus said seriously. "It is still true."

"Oh."

Severus handed him the plate that had the cake on it and the boy used his hands to take a bite. His eyes widened and he smiled at Severus and Albus. He munched on his cake while the other men had sandwiches. Once they finished Albus stood to leave.

"Lightning. If you ever change your mind and wish to come to the castle you will be welcomed. Please consider it."

Glade who had spent the day merely watching hissed in Lightning's ear for a moment. The boy stiffened before nodding.

"I will consider it. If you or Severus wish to come and visit or need anything from the forest feel free to pop here. Like I told Severus if I'm not there when you show up feel free to wait for me."

"Goodbye Lightning."

"Goodbye my boy."

The two popped away and appeared right outside the castle.

"Severus, you were right that boy certainly needs to come to the castle and learn magic. We have time though." Albus said as they walked up to the castle.

"The boy told me he has no desire to return to the human world. It is clear that his family abused him causing him to use accidental magic and apparate away. I think his magic might've tried to take him to Hogwarts itself but he didn't have enough to make it that far."

"I agree my boy. We must find out who is parents are so that we can identify him."

"He might not even be from Britain with the power levels the boy displays he could have come from the continent."

"That does make that difficult. Although he speaks English rather well."

"His parents could have only spoken English around him." Snape countered.

"I have so many questions about that boy."

"Such as?"

"Why do the snakes call him Lightning?"

"Don't. It can't possibly be Potter's spawn."

"Why not? I mean his eyes look very much like Lily's. Cut the hair short and clean the boy up he could easily be Harry Potter."

"No Potter has ever had the parseltongue ability. The boy is most likely a muggle born from a line of squibs."

"I must admit I did not see his scar so I cannot argue that particular point with you. Until one of us gets a good look at his clean forehead it is for nothing."

"I doubt the boy would allow anyone human get near him." Snape drawled. "Maybe a woman would make him feel more comfortable."

"I don't think it's our gender that bothers him." Albus said. "He was very afraid of me because of the amount of power I possessed. I think he fears those who would be able to overpower him. Which would make sense if his parents abused him. He would fear being over powered."

"We both well know a student who spoke to snakes and feared being weak as well."

"I fear that as well. There are too many similarities between the two children. The only difference is that He always gave me a bad feeling. I did not have that with Lightning." Albus said recalling a young boy he met in an orphanage. "I will not fail this boy like I did the last."

"Then visit the boy. I know he will come around to visiting the castle eventually if only for the food. Make yourself available for his trust and he will come, Albus."

"I hope you are right my boy."

"I came to you eventually too."

"That you did my boy."

Severus spent the rest of the day planning. He wanted the boy to come to Hogwarts. Even if just for a day. It bothered him that the boy could be Potter but the more he thought about it the more it made sense. If one ignored the Parseltongue, the boy could easily resemble James. He also had Lily's desire to defend those weaker than himself. The boy was also nothing like James Potter which was a plus if it turned out he was the missing boy who lived. That night they had a staff meeting.

"I have two important pieces of information for the staff." Albus began. "We have yet to hear from Harry Potter. His owl was received and the boy accepted the letter but he has yet to respond. We can only assume he thought the letter was either a joke, he does not wish to go to school here or he is unable to respond."

At that announcement the staff burst out in whispers. Many of the teachers were saddened at the fact that Harry Potter might not come to Hogwarts that year. At least he was alive.

"Onto another little boy a bit closer to home." Albus said. "Last week Severus returned from his yearly trip into the Forbidden Forest during that trip he was attacked by a Wyvern that has taken up residence in our forest. He was rescued by a little boy."

"The boy using wandless magic only managed to scare the beast off. Before I could talk to him he disappeared." Severus continued the story. "Two days later I went to the center of the forest and found myself in a strange place. A series of tree houses connected by rope bridges high in the trees. The boy lived there alone."

"Gentlemen do you mean to tell me you left him in the woods alone?" Minerva said interrupting.

"Yes. He was unwilling to come to the castle. He is afraid of people." Severus answered. "He was abused by his family and used magic to apparate someplace safe. The boy is a Parselmouth and is living with hundreds of snakes. According to the boy his human name was 'Freak' and the snakes renamed him 'Lightning'."

"That's awful." Pomona said her empathetic heart reaching out to a boy she had not yet met.

"Snakes, apparently, can have a system of government and most in our forest have pledged themselves to Lightning banning together under his name for protection." Snape said only now realizing how silly that sounded. "He has made it his mission to protect any in his domain which is a part of the forest. He showed me this by fighting the Wyvern again while I was with the boy. It was an awesome display of power."

"Was he injured?" Madame Pomphrey asked.

"Three gashes on his chest that I cleaned and healed with his permission." Snape answered. "The boy is well practiced using certain types of magic but completely unfamiliar with others. I was the first wizard other than himself he had ever met."

"Are we going to try and get him to come to the school?" Flitwick asked.

"His magical core is strong enough to be compared to a moderately powerful adult right now." Albus said. "According to Severus the boy has a lot of magical control something I do not doubt. However as he grows older it is imperative he learns to use magic here. The boy is untrusting of humans and does not wish to interact with large groups. I think he considers himself more snake than anything else."

The staff continued to discuss what the boy had been able to accomplish. Minerva was excited about the transfigurations the boy had accomplished. Pomona the garden, Flitwick the warming, cooling and levitation charms. Hagrid the rare snakes the boy took care of. They all agreed that since the boy was more open to Severus that he would visit weekly and try to get the boy to agree to visit the castle. The others if they saw him would approach him kindly and be understanding.

Severus visited the boy once a week on Saturday. He would spend half the day there talking with him about the goings on in the forest and in the castle. Lightning would ask questions often.

"Are ghosts real? Mother said that she saw one once but I am not so sure."

"They are. The castle has 7 resident ghosts. You can meet them if you come and visit."

Then another time.

"Do all wizards use wands?"

"Yes it is customary to get a wand from a wizarding store in London. I could take you there if you want to leave the forest."

Another time.

"Do you make potions like you cook in a kitchen?"

"You brew them in cauldrons. I can show you how if you come to the school with me."

So time passed. Snape would make offers and Lightning would deny them. Lightning was truly afraid of the castle. If Snape ever pushed him too hard the boy would fly into a panic. Snape never got close enough to lift the messy fringe of hair that covered the boy's forehead. The first quarter of the school year passed normally. There wasn't any crazy happenings which was strange since the philosophers stone was being kept in the castle. The only bad thing that had happened was that it was discovered the Quirrel was being possessed.

It had been discovered Halloween night when the wards had alerted Dumbledore that someone was trying to get a dark creature onto the premises. There had been a huge duel in the dungeons between the headmaster and Quirrel before Voldemort's spirit was evicted. Now Dumbledore was teaching the classes while looking for a new defense instructor.

Severus had visited that Halloween as well hoping that the boy could cheer him up. It had been an interesting visit. The boy was jumpy and sad.

"Hello Lightning."

"Hello Sevrus. I did not know you would be visiting on the bad day."

"The bad day?"

"I always feel bad and in pain today, once a year when the leaves fall and the dead wake up to walk."

"Do you know why?" Severus said ignoring the strange phrasing.

"No, I always have a bad dreams today but they never make much sense. I wouldn't have the words in English to describe it anyway."

"My best friend died today about ten years ago."

Snape didn't know what made him say it but something about the boy made him want to talk.

"What happened?"

So Snape told the boy his life story. The existence of the dark wizard called Voldemort who raged against wizarding kind. How he grew up next door neighbors with the beautiful Lily Evans who was magical just like him. How they were separated into different groups at school but remained friends. How he had loved her for a long time up until the day of her wedding. How Lily married his childhood bully but when he saw her smiling he realized that she was happy and that he should move on.

How in his anger in his 5th year he turned to the dark wizard and joined him. How he found out about a prophecy that foretold the birth of a wizard who would have the power to destroy the dark wizard. How his best friend had given birth to the child of prophecy. How he had become a spy for the light side. How they had gone into hiding but were betrayed. How she had been killed by the dark wizard. How that Halloween Night ten years ago the Dark Lord was vanquished by a mere infant.

Lightning had listened well and asked only questions when Snape referred to something he didn't know what was. When Snape had finished he had been near tears. The boy had left for a moment and returned carrying a wooden figurine.

"When you made those chairs with magic I realized I could do the same. You are a good man and I want you to be my friend. I give my friends things. Here."

The boy handed him the wooden figurine. It was tinged with green and was the likeness of a snake. It looked extremely life like and well down. The figurine was the correct size to be worn as a pendant. Snape conjured a chain and looped it through the snake and put it one. He felt honored that the untrusting boy would offer him a hand of friendship.

"I would be honored to be your friend Lightning."

"I want to introduce you to my mother. You've seen her but you've never spoken."

"I would like that."

So for the next ten minutes he had a conversation with an intelligent yellow boa. She had apparently seen him once before in the castle. She sensed that he would be good for her hatchling. After that Snape had returned to the castle feeling much better than he had on any Halloween previous.

A month passed and then winter break came upon them. Now that the students were returning home and Snape was hoping he could convince Lightning to come to the castle for Christmas. He had a gift he wanted to give to him. Snape would go the next day but for now they had a staff meeting.

They spent a lot of time discussing students, lesson plans and the like. Finally Albus brought up the topic everyone was interested in. King Lightning.

"Severus would you like to update us on Lightning?"

"He is still scared of the castle but he is more comfortable around me. He even asked about you Albus the last time I visited. He asked me to be friends on Halloween and has given me a gift. I think he might be open to visiting on Christmas if I present it correctly."

The staff began planning on what they would get the boy. Pomona wanted to give him a magical plant that would help his garden grow better. Flitwick wanted to give him a pair of gloves designed to aid in wandless magic. Hagrid wanted to give the boy a wooden flute so he could make music. The list continued. All of the professors had practically adopted the boy they hadn't even met yet. So the next day Snape apparated to the clearing. Except instead of it being clear it was filled with the sounds of battle.

The Wyvern had returned and was more prepared for battle it seemed. Snape had popped right into the middle of battle just as the Wyvern was swiping his sharp claws towards Lightning. Snape was hit in the side of the head and pushed so hard he flew across the clearing into a tree. He heard Lightning cry out in anger and opened his eyes to watch three copies of Lightning charge at the Wyvern.

Snape heard an explosion as he began to lose consciousness. He thought maybe the dragon had exploded but he had no real idea, that seemed impossible. The last thing he heard was Lightning calling out to him and running towards him.


	4. Cabinets are for Freaks

**Chapter 4! This one was by far one of the more interesting chapters to write. I hope you like it. I'd love if you tell me what you thought of it in a review.**

Lightning loved Severus' visits. He learned so much from the man. The man had even offered to teach him to read when he visited the castle. Lightning had no plans of ever going there but it was a kind offer. His family had made it clear that he would never be smart enough to learn to read or write. He didn't want to upset Severus his only human friend when the man realized how stupid he was.

Severus visited him every seven days and Lightning was excited to see him. It had snowed and he wanted to show his friend how his home changed to prepare for snow. That morning however reports from one of the snakes told him that the Wyvern was coming to attack. The wyvern attacked that morning and it was an exhausting battle.

The Wyvern had used his intelligence to plan out an attack and the dragon was putting up a strong front. Lightning didn't notice as time passed and focused only on removing the threat to his domain. Something strange happened when Snape popped in the middle of the battle. His friend was thrown to the side by the Wyvern and Lightning had heard a crack as the man had hit a tree.

He suddenly felt furious. His magic came to his hands so hot it stung and he jumped onto the dragon. The magic blasted out of him and the dragon exploded. The magic blast went through the forest pushing trees back like a strong wind. Pieces of the Wyvern flew everywhere. The snakes began to hiss in joy but Lightning did not hear. He ran towards his friend calling out his name.

"Sevrus." Lightning ran right up to the man and grabbed his head.

The man was unconscious and bleeding from wounds on his side. Lightning knew instantly he could not heal the man here.

 _"_ _GLADE!"_

 _"_ _What is it hatchling? Is the two legs injured?"_

 _"_ _Yes I must go to the castle to get him help or he will perish. Send Slicer to the castle if you need me. You are in charge while I am gone mother."_

 _"_ _Be safe Youngling."_

Ignoring his fatigue Lightning grabbed the man and used his magic to pop as close to the castle as possible. He was only a half a mile from the castle when he appeared. He fought with himself to keep from passing out and began the trek. He used a levitation charm he had seen Severus use to make the man follow him and he began to run.

He ran up to the castle feeling the edges of his vision begin to turn black as he fought to remain awake. He saw the large wooden doors and pushed his magic forward to open them. They swung open and nearly fell off their hinges from the blast. Following something within him, an urge telling him where to go, he ran towards some place he did not recognize. He ran upstairs and through hallways. At this point he was only running on adrenaline. He used the last of his magic to open some doors and came upon a white room full of beds. A woman shrieked at the sight of him.

"Help." Was all he could say before he fell down and lost consciousness.

The next time he was aware of himself he was lying in a bed. A soft blanket was covering him and he felt strange. He opened his eyes and sat up. His looked at himself and saw that his magic levels were pretty low not dangerously low but lower than normal. Not surprising considering the amount of magic he had had to use to get to the castle. He looked around and saw that the room was empty. Had Severus died? Tears threatened to come out of his eyes when he thought about that possibility. Then he heard talking.

The training from his years with his family ensured he knew what to do. He ran towards the cupboard on the other side of the room. He closed the doors in on himself so that he would be able to hide. The door to the room opened and Lightning held his breath. Hoping they wouldn't find him.

"Severus. I promise the boy won't wake up for a long time." A woman said.

"Lightning has the particular ability to do what is least expected. I did not want to leave the room at all so that I would be here when he awoke."

"His core is still very low." The woman said before gasping. "Where is he? He shouldn't be out of that bed."

"He most likely hasn't left the room. Start searching." Severus commanded.

Lightning held his breath as Severus walked by. He was glad the man was okay and seemed healed but he wouldn't come out while there were strangers. Ma'am had always been much meaner than Sir anyway. The woman walked by next and knelt down in front of his hiding place. He used some magic to lock the door right before she tried to open it.

He watched through the crack as the woman removed her wand and waved it to try and use magic. It didn't work and she frowned.

"Severus I found him. He has used magic to lock the door of my potions cabinet."

"Move away from there." Severus said while getting into position in front of the cabinet.

"Sevrus." Lightning whispered. "Are you okay? I thought Drake killed you. You wouldn't wake up."

"I'm fine. You got me to the castle in time for there to be very little problems. Are you okay? You used a lot of magic."

"I'm tired but okay. I am scared Sevrus."

"Why?"

"I'm in the castle. I didn't want to come here. I don't know where I am and I don't know who that woman is. Mother isn't here to tell me if she is nice or not."

"The room you are in is called the infirmary, it is where people in the castle go when they are injured." Severus explained. "The woman over there is called Poppy Pomphrey. She is what is known a medi-witch. A medi-witch is a person who uses magic to help heal people."

"How long have I been here?"

"You arrived with me yesterday and have been asleep since."

"Has Slicer been by to see me? He was going to come to the castle if there were problems."

"No one has seen any snakes, blue or otherwise."

Lightning nodded and leaned back now he just had to figure out how to leave the castle and get back to his home. Severus had always been pushing him to come visit the castle he seemed to think that Lightning would want to stay. He had just defeated a great enemy and needed to be home.

"Why are you in the cabinet Lightning?"

"That's where freaks belong. Sir and Ma'am always put me in here." Lightning explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Lightning. You are a king with a large domain and a lot of snake followers." Severus said with a sigh. "Do you think those snakes would pledge themselves to you if they thought you were a freak and belonged in a small cabinet?"

This made Lightning pause. His subjects weren't stupid. None of them had ever called him a freak. They didn't fear him despite his power so they could easily tell him if he was a freak. Besides when snakes were first determining whether or not to pledge themselves they could have said something.

"No. Not now especially after what I did to the Wyvern."

"I would like to hear about your conquest." Severus said with a smile. "Would you come out and tell me? It is hard to hear you through the wood."

Lightning considered this. It probably wouldn't be too bad to leave. Severus was his friend and wouldn't lie to him right?

"Do you promise the woman won't come near me?"

"I promise I will keep her from getting close to you."

Lightning waved his hand and the door unlocked and popped open. He waited for Severus to move out of the way and he crawled out. Severus smiled and led him over to the bed he had been occupying. Lightning stared at it.

"Would you like to get into the bed?"

"Can I?"

"Of course. You have every right to use this bed."

Lightning had a hard time believing that but at his friend's pleading look he nodded and got into the bed. Severus was instantly there putting the blanket over him. Lightning stiffened and waited for him to move away. Severus did after a moment.

"What did you do that for?"

"I don't want you to get cold. The infirmary is always rather cold even when you are wearing thick teaching robes." Severus answered. "Now can you tell me what happened?"

"Yesterday morning Lyla came by and told me that the Wyvern was planning on attacking. I prepared by moving all the snakes to a safe place and being ready to face Drake." Lightning began. "He came prepared, he was ready to kill me. Before you showed up I had been fighting all morning. I was really tired. When you popped in the Wyvern hit you and sent you flying right into a tree. I heard something crack, like a bone or something."

"I broke a few rib bones here" Severus said pointing to certain areas on his chest. "and here."

"I got so angry. No one hurts my Sevrus." Lightning said furiously. "My magic responded and I called so much magic into my hands it hurt. I hit the Wyvern with so much magic that it exploded everywhere. It was really gross. There was so much magic it pushed the trees back like a strong wind. I felt so tired but you were hurt so I ran to you. You wouldn't wake up and you were bleeding. I don't know how to heal people. You told me that the castle had people who knew how to heal with magic."

"I did. You did the right thing by taking me here."

"It would've taken forever to walk and I wouldn't have been able to carry you with magic very far so I popped. I popped as close to the castle as I could and then I made you fly by me and ran into the castle." Lightning said. "I didn't know where I was going but I just kept running until I came here and collapsed. Then I woke up in this bed."

"You expended a lot of magic getting me here in a timely manner. You could've hurt yourself." Severus chided.

"I didn't want you to die."

"Thank you but next time be smarter about it. Instead of popping as far as you can using all of your magic you could've popped halfway waited for a few minutes and then popped the rest of the way. You would've used less magic that way."

"I've never tried it that way. Next time I'll be more careful. I don't know much about popping."

"Would you like something to eat?" Severus asked changing the conversation.

"Do you have any cake?"

Lightning may want to leave but he certainly wouldn't say no to cake. Severus smiled at him.

"I've got something better. If you would come with me I can show you where we eat."

"Severus I don't think that boy should be leaving bed." Poppy said.

Lightning cringed. The woman had moved closer while they had been talking. She looked nothing like ma'am. Ma'am had had a long neck and pinched look in her face. Poppy was plump and had lines around her eyes and lines around her mouth that made it clear she smiled often. She was nothing like the woman who had tortured him when he was small. He relaxed a little when he saw that her magical core wasn't too large either.

"Poppy. Lightning wouldn't feel comfortable staying here where anyone could come near him. I just thought I would take him some place more private to recover."

Lightning felt something strange inside at the show of Severus thinking about him and what he wanted. He looked at the woman and felt something familiar about her. He began searching his mind for his memories of a long time ago. A foggy memory of being held in a room just like that came up. He gripped the blanket as the memory came back.

He was sitting on the lap of a woman who had long red hair. She was on a bed using her knees to lift him up and down causing him to giggle. Then Poppy came into view.

"Congratulations Lily your Harry is a very healthy one year old." Poppy said before facing Lightning himself. "Now who wants a chocolate frog from Auntie Poppy?"

"Me! Me! Me!" Lightning shouted in a childlike voice.

The memory faded out. It had been a violent thing. Taking away all of Lightning's sense of time and place. When he opened his eyes again he saw Severus looking at him worriedly. He looked past Severus and onto the woman who had known him once a long time ago. He opened his mouth and tried to form questions.

"Can I have a chocolate frog?" Was all that came out instead.

The woman started and Severus gasped. Lightning didn't understand that but he just waited to see what she would do. She moved closer to him instead of answering.

"Do you recognize me dear?" She asked in excitement.

"I think I do. Sometimes memories from long ago will just come up into my mind. You were there in this one. You asked me if I wanted a chocolate frog and congratulated my mum cause I was healthy."

"Did I say anything else?"

"You called me Harry. But that doesn't make sense cause I didn't have any extra hair at all."

Severus stiffened next to Lightning. He stood and looked Lightning right in the eyes. The black eyes stared at him intensely before his friend asked.

"Lightning. Why do the snakes call you lightning?"

"Cause I have this weird scar on my forehead that looks like a lightning bolt." Lightning answered easily pulling up his hair and pointing out the red scar.

Poppy cried out in excitement and had to sit down. Severus seemed relieved and sad at the same time. Lightning lowered his messy hair and gave his friend a questioning look. Severus stopped staring and kind of seem to collapse a little.

"Lightning do you remember when I told you the story of my best friend? How her child defeated the evil man after he killed his parents."

"Yes."

"Well after he defeated the evil wizard. The wizarding world didn't know where to put the little baby. They thought that his relatives were the best place to put him so one night they left that 15th month old baby at the house of his aunt and uncle. He lived there for three years before disappearing. We discovered that his aunt and uncle were being very cruel to him and that he had run away to escape their abuse. We searched everywhere for that boy but he hid very well." Severus explained.

"Did you ever find him?"  
"Well you tell me. Harry Potter has bright green eyes, he has messy black eyes, and he has a special scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt."

Lightning lifted his hand and rubbed the scar. It tingled and he took a deep breath. Did he have a real name? Could he really be Harry Potter? Savior of the Wizarding World? Lauded for defeating the most recent dark wizard? Something clicked in him and he knew it was true. He was Harry Potter. He still had to ask.

"How common are lightning bolt scars?"

"There is only one known in the world."

"Oh. I think you found him then."

"I think I did as well. Welcome back to the Wizarding World Mr. Potter." Severus said with a grin.

"Mr.?" Lightning asked. "Never call me that again Sevrus. I might die."

"I call all of my students, Mr. or Miss." Snape argued back.

"I'm not a student." Lightning stated. "I am still too scared of this place besides my snakes need me."

"Ha! He sounds just like you Severus." Poppy said once she got her composure back.

"I disagree." Snape began.

"Oh no. think about all the times you've defended your slytherin's your little snakes." Poppy argued.

Lightning was now lost but apparently it was something funny because Severus paused and laughed. Once he calmed down he turned back to Lightning.

"Lightning. Would you like to get something to eat?"

"Okay Sevrus."


	5. Playing and Pudding

**Chapter 5! You get to meet new people in this chapter so that's good right? I think i did pretty well with the character's i introduced this chapter. Tell me what you think!**

Snape was not as upset as he could've been upon discovering his friend was Harry Potter. The boy had handled it well and was the same as before. Nothing at all like James Potter and he even had some things from Lily. All in all the boy was a good child even if he was stubborn. Snape led the boy who was walking very close to him. In fact if he hadn't known the amount of power the boy wielded Lightning would've looked like a small scared figure trying to hide behind his robes.

Wait that's exactly what he was. It was ironic really that the most feared teacher in the school represented a safe place for the abused and frightened little boy. If things had been different he would have despised the boy and the boy would've hated him. Instead the boy was trying to hide in his dark robes because he felt he could only trust him. If Snape was a lesser composed man he would've snorted. Instead he settled for a smirk.

They made it to the Great Hall that was serving lunch. Only a few students had stayed behind during the winter break which was probably for the best. The four Weasley boys were there from Gryffindor one of their siblings Percy was probably in the library. They were laughing but stopped when they saw their potions master enter. Snape prayed his image would remain intact. But it was not to be.

"Sevrus." Lightning said grabbing the man's sleeve.

Snape not wanting to scare the boy merely turned around and kneeled to face the boy.

"Yes Lightning?"

"Where did the roof go?"

Ah the enchanted ceiling. Always a favorite.

"One of the builders of the castle known as Rowena Ravenclaw used her magic to charm the ceiling to look like the sky above it." Snape explained.

Because there were so few people staying for the break there was only one small table set up. Snape led him so that they were sitting not so close to the Weasley's but close enough that the boy could talk to them if he wanted.

"Now Lightning. This was some of the magic I told you about. Food is just going to appear it will be whatever you want so think about the food you want and it will appear are you ready to sit down?"

"Yes Sevrus."

Snape kept himself from snarling at the three boys who were giggling at the scene. That however did not keep Lightning from noticing. He sat down and stared at them for a while. He knew now that the boy was looking at the size of their cores to determine how much of a threat they were.

It is not an everyday sight to see when a boy dressed as if he should've been in a Tarzan novel sitting within the magical Great Hall. To the three teen boys he cut quite a fearsome figure. Lightning turned back to Severus.

"Are they my age Sevrus?"

"The two that look the same are a couple years older than you and the other one is your age, Lightning."

"So their hatchlings like me?"

"I suppose so yes."

"Then I can play with them?"

Before Severus could ask for clarification Lightning waved his hand towards the twins. They began to spout feathers of every color until they looked ridiculous, which didn't really take long. The twins were laughing and Ron was gaping. Severus smiled too, it was nice to see his friend not be so serious. Then the boy set his sights on Ron. He turned his head to the side before sticking out his pointer finger and wiggling it.

The boy's robes started flashing different colors while his hair flashed opposite colors. The robes would turn bright purple, the hair bright green. The twins, accepting of their birdy fate, were now laughing at their brother's misfortune. The twins stood up and made their way to sit right in front of Lightning. Snape stayed there to offer support.

"Where did you learn to do that?" The first asked.

"And without a wand too. No one-"

"-would ever catch you."

"Mother taught me."

"Your mum taught you-"

"-how to prank people?"

"Yes." Lightning answered simply confused as to why that would be so hard to believe.

The twins stared at him in disbelief and then looked to the professor for confirmation. Snape nodded and their mouths opened in shock. Ron then moved to join them. He made the first sensible move of the day. He stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is Ron Weasley."

Lightning looked at the hand in confusion before turning to Snape for direction.

"You shake hands with him. Put your hand in his and move it up and down, tell him your name."

"Which one?"

"The one you want him to call you." Snape said in impatience.

Snape watched in amusement as Lightning nearly tore the boys arm off in an awful handshake. Then he introduced himself.

"Hello, my name is Lightning. Would you like to stop flashing colors now?"

"That'd be nice Lightning."

So the boy wiggled his finger again and Ron turned normal. He turned to the twins to do the same.

"Hello my name is Lightning." He said sticking out his hand as he had seen Ron do.

Snape hid a smile behind his hand but it fooled no one. The twins introduced themselves normally as it was clear that the newest person in the room wouldn't understand Twin Speak quite yet. Lightning caused the feathers to fly off of the boys go into the air and then explode into colorful dust. All without a wand, which never ceased to amaze Snape.

"Lightning I do believe I took you down here to introduce you to pudding." Snape said.

"Pudding?" Ron shouted. "Where are you from that you've never had pudding?"

"I'm from the forest. I think Sevrus called it the Forbidden Forest. I grew up there." Lightning answered.

Thus Lightning secured himself his first three friends his age. While Snape served him different types of food and told him what they were the boys piled him with questions. When they found out he spoke Parseltongue one look from their professor kept them from telling him about the negative connotations. They completely enjoyed the story of the Wyvern.

"So what kind of creatures do you meet in the forest?"

"Well the Centaurs are weird but okay. The herd of unicorns are nice, one of the fillies once gave me her horn in exchange for helping her out."

"You have an entire unicorn horn?" George asked.

"Yes. It's back in my home. She told me it was really useful but I've not found out what to do with it yet."

"Lots of potions and spells require unicorn parts but they have to be given willingly. Unicorn Horns are super rare." Fred told him.

"Oh. Well I avoid the giant spiders and they avoid me." Lightning continued. "The worst creature in the forest is the Wyvern."

"There's a dragon in the forest?" Ron asked.

"There was. I killed him yesterday."

"What?" Ron yelped.

"Tell us everything." The twins said at the same time.

"Dragons speak a slightly different version of the snake tongue. Drake the Wyvern didn't like me or my snakes. He attacked me a lot but I always managed to scare him away. The time before yesterday he attacked because he wanted to eat Sevrus."

"The Wyvern wanted to eat Professor Snape?" George asked.

"Wouldn't he be afraid of indigestion?" Fred wondered.

The joke went over Lightning's head but it made Snape smile lightly and Ron laugh loudly.

"Yesterday morning one of my scouting snakes who lives along the borders of my domain came in and told me the Wyvern was coming to attack." Lightning continued the story.

At the end the boys were amazed at the power and skill the boy displayed as well as his actions to save Snape. They might not have liked the professor but he was being pretty decent towards the savage boy. They then asked him to show off some 'Snake Magic'.

"What do you want to see?"

"Lightning. Show them the fire you can use." Severus suggested.

The boy's eyes gleamed in excitement as Lightning allowed a flame to burst into life in the middle of his hand. Ron asked an interesting question.

"Why don't you use a wand? Wouldn't it be easier?"

"I asked mother about that she said that since snakes don't have hands they don't need wands so they use magic with themselves instead. Since I am using snake magic I don't need a wand. Besides I don't have a wand of my own. Sevrus told me you have to buy a wand at a store and there aren't any of those in the forest."

"Wicked. Could we learn Snake magic too?" One of the twins asked.

"I don't know. I've never tried to teach anyone else. Mother taught me because I could speak to her and she knew I would be a powerful king one day. She wanted me to be ready."

"King?"

"I am the king of the snakes in the forest." Lightning explained.

At that point Albus interrupted. He coughed to announce himself and scared Lightning half to death. The boy jumped high in the air and when he landed back into his seat he was leaning against Snape trying to shield himself.

"Relax my boy. It's merely me Albus Dumbledore. I heard you were up and walking around after saving Severus a second time."

"Hello Albus." The boy said relaxing a little.

"I am so glad you decided to come to the castle and stay for a meal. I hope we can convince you to stay a little longer." Albus began. "At least until Christmas."

The Weasley boys decided to chime in as well. They all wanted the strange boy to stay and tell them more. If they became good enough friends maybe he would take them to his home. Access to the center of the forbidden forest was something no other student had.

"Yeah Lightning! You should totally stay for Christmas." Ron said. "I heard that the great hall looks fantastic Christmas morning."

"Yeah. Plus all the sweets that they have for the Christmas feast." Fred added.

"That and we could teach you all about the school."

Severus knew the boy was considering the offer but did not expect the question that came next.

"Sevrus?"

"Yes."

"Can freaks celebrate Christmas?" He whispered, almost too afraid to ask.

"Lightning. Do you think your human mother and father or I for that matter want you to call yourself that?" Snape demanded.

"No."

"Your snakes wouldn't like it either. You have every right to do whatever you want. If that means you want to celebrate Christmas then you can. I would hope you would celebrate it with me since I am your friend."

"I'd have to go home and get some things. I also need to clean up the remains of the Wyvern."

"Can we come?" All three boys asked.

"I would be happy to take you. Sevrus, can they come to my home? It will be completely safe."

"That is a question you must ask the headmaster." Severus said.

"I will stay in the castle for Christmas if I can take my friends to my home while I get things I will need."

"I don't see why not. I myself would be happy to see your home again."

"Would be alright if a snake came with me? Lyla is resting on her eggs and she needs my constant presence to help her eggs."

"I don't think that would be an issue. Do they need to be moved in a certain way or will traveling the way you do be fine?"

"Her species of snakes can pop when they are born. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Excellent. We shall travel there once we have finished eating."

Severus was torn. He was both happy that Lightning had agreed to stay, and upset that the headmaster was allowing children into the Forbidden Forest. Granted the forest was rather safe when one of its kings led you. Still it didn't sit well with him. So after lunch they walked out of the castle. The boys talking excitedly to Lightning asking questions about his home. Once they were past the apparition point Severus reminded Lightning.

"This time do short jumps and you shouldn't have a problem."


	6. A Red-Headed Family

**Chapter 6! Thank you so much for the responses I've received so far! The amount of favorites and follows i really wasn't expecting. I can't keep myself from posting the next chapter since you all seem so excited about it. Remember to write a review!**

"Okay. Ron do you know how to pop?"  
"You mean Apparate? No I'm not old enough."

"Okay then. I'll take you, It's pretty easy to take an extra one person but more than one and it gets difficult." Lightning offered.

"That's an excellent solution. Severus and I will each take one of the twins and we will meet you there." Dumbledore said.

"Alright Albus. Mum told me the best way to do it is to hug. That's why she is always curling her body around me."

"What kind of snake is your mum?" Ron asked while grabbing onto Harry.

"She's a yellow boa. She is beautiful. I'll introduce you when we get there. Are you ready?

"Yes Lightning I'm ready."

With a practiced ease Lightning popped them a third of the way to his home. Ron let go for a moment trying to catch his breath.

"Are we there?"

"No just two more pops. This is a clearing where the centaurs meet every year to discuss the stars. It's pretty interesting."

"Blimey."

"Ready for the next pop?"

"Yes."

The next stop was the clearing that he first met Severus Snape in. He showed Ron where the Wyvern had gouged a tree. The final pop led them right in the clearing. The other groups were already there and the clearing was a mess. Normally the clearing would be covered in snow but it was completely gone. There were pieces of the carcass strewn everywhere and the air tasted of magic. The snakes instantly came to meet him.

"Hold on Ron. I've got to take care of this."

Lightning kneeled down and started talking with his subjects. Lyla was nervous at his absence. No one had heard of any other planned attacks. The magic in the area was making things safer. He had set a ward of protection with his magical backlash. The hatchlings had not been harmed. The eggs were well. Slicer wanted as many blessings on his babies as possible. His mother wanted to know if he would be returning to the castle for the winter.

 _"_ _Mother. There is a human celebration I had been unable to celebrate until now. I wish to experience it. I will only be gone for a little more than a week. I am taking Lyla and her eggs with me. You need to stay and keep the snakes in control, Slicer will act as our envoy."_

 _"_ _That is sensible Hatchling. Soon you will not need my advice. Now introduce me to your new companions."_

Lightning picked up his mother and walked over to the group.

"George, Fred, Ron, and Albus. This is Glade she is not my egg mother but the mother of my heart. She raised me in this forest and taught me all I know." Lightning said. "She understands English so say whatever you'd like and I'll translate for her."

Fred and George bowed simultaneously.

"My Lady it is a pleasure-"

"To meet the teacher of such a great prankster."

Glade laughed and then hissed back at each.

"She says it is an honor those blessed with a doubling. She thinks you remind her of two trickster foxes."

"The doubling?" Fred asked.

"What's that?" George continued.

"Among snakes it is considered a large blessing to have a twin hatching where two eggs born at the same time and look the same. Among our lore it is said that those blessed with a doubling are blessed with a bright and healthy future." Lightning explained.

"Sweet." They said at the same time.

"Hello Glade. My name is Ron. I'm Lightning's age."

Glade stuck out her tongue and stared at Ron for a moment before hissing at Lightning.

"She says it is a pleasure to meet one so talented. She can sense in you a future of much power and strength. She says that if you work you will have the ability to see into the future. A seer I think the word is in English. She thinks you are promising two legger."

"I could be a seer?" Ron asked amazed.

"According to mum and she's never wrong."

"Sweet! What's a two legger?"

"It's the word in snake language for humans."

"Cool."

"Hello I was here once before I am Albus Dumbledore."

Glade hissed quickly this time.

"I don't quite understand this but she said to translate it directly. 'Ancient one. Do not rely on prophecy alone to complete your quest. My hatchling is the answer but he will require much support. If you use him as you have before then magic itself will come to his aid against you.' That one doesn't make much sense but she said you would understand."

"I do my boy, I do." Albus said quietly.

"Now that introductions are over. I can give you a tour. After all the conversations with Sevrus I can explain how things work."

"According to Sevrus these are called lifts. I called them travel baskets. They work on snake magic. You just climb in one at a time and tell it in snake speak to lift you up or lower you down. Since you can't speak it I'll do it for you."

So one at a time they got in and rode the lift up. Lightning was last, he took them through each one telling them a little about each room. Finally they came to the room he used to use as a training room.

"This used to be the room I trained in, but because Lyla is laying her eggs I turned it into a nursery." Lightning said. "This is Lyla she is a rare Asclepius serpent. Her species was hunted by two leggers hundreds of years ago almost into extinction. This brood of eggs is important to help her species make a comeback."

"Why were they hunting them?" Ron asked.

"Asclepius serpents are called healer serpents. They can use magic to heal any wound, travel long distances and their venom is an almost all inclusive anti-venom for other snakes." Lightning said. "Is it said that if you use their blood in a very dark potion it supposedly gave you immortality. Ancient potion makers tried for a long time killing the snakes for their blood until there were almost no more."

"Bloody hell. I can see why you want to protect her and her babies." Ron said.

"When are the eggs due to hatch?" Severus asked.

"Right around on Christmas. I bless the eggs every day to give them the best shot at survival possible."

"How do you bless an egg?" George asked.

"I would like to see that myself actually." Albus said. "Professor Snape has told me it is quite a sight."

"Well first you have to call upon your magic. Wake it up as it were." Lightning explained. "You have to explain what you want and why you want it. Then you bring the magic into your hands and let it surround the egg. Then you focus really really hard on what you want. You let the magic fill up and then let it go."

"Can we see?"

"Yeah it's easier to understand when you see it. I have to bless these hatchlings today."

Lightning picked up the first egg. He could tell this would be a female, strong and vibrant. The stories Severus had told him of the woman who was his egg mother reminded him of the future female snake. He thought about what he wanted, strength of mind and magic. Luck in finding a mate, fertility, wisdom and knowledge. His hands began to glow a bright red and entered the egg. He felt the hatchling accept the blessing and he let the magic go.

He placed the egg back and picked up the next. This one was a male and grumpy. He would be snarky and funny. He was thinking of naming him Severus in the snake tongue for his personality. He blessed him with all the same things. He moved on to the next which was a girl who would be very inquisitive. He blessed her. The next was another female who would be the doubling of the last one.

All in all Lyla had laid 7 eggs a very high and magical number for her species. The blessings had paid off indeed. He blessed each egg and laid them back down.

"What did you guys think?"

"That was pretty cool Lightning. What does it feel like?" George asked.

"You can feel what the child is going to be like, their personality." Lightning said. "For instance this one is going to be a strong young snakeling who is going to be very grumpy and snarky. He reminds me of Sevrus."

"He's got you down perfectly Severus." Albus said with a smile.

"Lightning. I would be careful of making fun of your elders."

"I wasn't Sevrus! It was a compliment. This hatchling is going to be very successful just sarcastic while he does it."

"What about the others?" Ron asked.

"Well that one is a girl who is going to be vibrant. She'll be strong, loyal, and kind. She'll defend those weaker than herself." Lightning said. "She reminds me of my birth mum. These two are twin girls who are really inquisitive. That one is going to be a headstrong thoughtless man and that one is going to be a careful timid one."

"What about that last one?" Fred said pointing to the black egg in the center.

"I can't tell, it isn't telling me anything. All I can tell is that this hatchling will be very independent he or she doesn't want my help."

"How do you intend to carry the eggs back to the castle?" Albus asked.

"Carefully. Lyla will curl around me and I will use a very special basket to keep the eggs safe during travel. I created it last week using a lot of magic and planning. It's over there in the corner."

Lightning let Lyla crawl up his arm and then he carefully moved each egg into the basket. It was tricky work but he got all 7 safely in. He then picked up the basket and held it tightly to his chest.

"I just need to go to my bedroom and get some clothes. Would you like to come? I didn't show you guys the shelves before but you can see the unicorn horn."

"That would be sweet!" Ron said.

So they went back to the bedroom and Lightning pointed out interesting things he had been given or found. They exclaimed over the unicorn horn that still glowed white with magic. They thought the pile of gems and galleons was interesting but Lightning paid it no mind. What use did a snake have for gold? He grabbed a basket that had things he would need for a long journey and was ready to go.

He had given his instructions to his mother and Slicer. Lyla and Slicer said goodbye sounding desolate. He began the journey back in the late evening. He got to pop back with George. He took them the same route he took Ron and George was careful to hug him in a way that didn't squish the basket that held the eggs.

They made their way back to the castle and Lightning began to feel very tired. He looked at Severus.

"Where do I sleep? Is there someplace I can be alone so I can make sure that Lyla is protected? The less people around her the more she will relax."

"There are the guest rooms that you could use." Albus suggested. "There are some that are near Gryffindor Tower so you would be near the Weasley boys."

"Are there any near Sevrus?"

"There aren't any guest rooms in the dungeons."

"Okay. I'll use the one near the boys my age then. Can you show me how to get there?"

"We'll take you Lightning. It's only a few minutes from our portrait." Fred said.

"Yeah besides we have to get ready to get you back for that prank at lunch."

Lightning stopped dead.

"You want to play with me?"

"Well yeah. Why wouldn't we want to?"

"My family told me I was too stupid for friends and the snakes can't play with me cause I'm too big."

"You never had anyone to play with growing up?" Ron asked.

"No. I always wanted to try though."

"Wait a minute Lightning." Fred said.

The three boys stood down the hallway a little and began whispering furiously. After a few moments they came to an agreement. They walked over to him and smiled.

"You are now an official member of the Weasley clan, Lightning. You are now our little brother. This winter break we are going to play with you and teach you all there is to know about being a human wizard." George said.

"Do you accept our offer?"

Lightning's throat tightened for a moment. The entire time he had lived with his relatives the made it clear he was unlovable. The snakes helped a little but he still believed that no human could like him. Now three boys his age were offering the hand of brotherhood. His eyes filled with unshed tears and he nodded.

"Great. First off we have to give you an embarrassing moniker." Fred said.

"And we have to find ways to embarrass you. It's our job as older brother."

"We'll teach you how to play wizard games and fly on brooms." Ron added.

They led him up to the guest rooms they had a password that Albus had told him. The boys told him the password and how to get into Gryffindor tower. Lightning went into his rooms alone and used the last of his remaining energy to set up a good nest for Lyla. Once she approved he removed the eggs checking for any damage. Not finding any he placed them in one by one. He laid down on the bed, which was rather comfortable and fell into a deep sleep.

He awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and to a hissing Lyla. Her eggs needed protections and she was hungry. Lightning giggled he rolled out of bed and decided to feed Lyla, bless the eggs and then explore the rooms. The sun was just rising according to the window outside. He grabbed his basket and removed the mice and rats he had hunted specifically for Lyla. He gave her two and she ate them up feeling better.

He blessed the eggs and then he explored the rooms. He left Lyla to relax and guard her eggs. He found the bathroom. It was wonderful, Ma'am had always told him he was too freaky to use the indoor bathroom for normal people. He shoved that aside and explored. He decided he would take a shower which was something that he almost never did. The soap created large colored bubbles and made him smell wonderful.

He took a very long hot shower. When he left he looked into the mirror and hardly recognized himself. His hair was laid flat and long. Going past his shoulders and down to his mid back which wasn't surprising seeing as how he had never cut it. When his hair was dry and crazy from living outdoors it was a birds nest and messy. He didn't like the fact that his hair was in his face. He asked Lyla for advice.

 _"_ _Use your magic to style it to something befitting a king of your status and power."_ She said haughtily.

That was an interesting thought. He looked in the mirror and called his magic to him. It raised itself up and answered his call. He felt his hands heat up and he touched his head lightly to let the magic work. The hair styled itself into something snake like but still nice. It was tied back with multiple tiny braids that made his hair look an interesting puzzle. Lightning liked it. The magic also cut the hair in places to keep it looking nice instead of crazy. The only thing it left was the fringe that covered up his lightning scar.

Lightning went next to his basket and pulled out all of his clothing. Nothing really looked like what the others wore but what they wore looked so uncomfortable. It was winter and he normally spent his time in his home not outside since his animal hides didn't help much with the cold. He asked Lyla once again what she thought.

 _"_ _Check that closet over there for clothing if nothing in there suits use magic. You awoke something within you when you vanquished Drake. Your magic longs to serve you now. It will do anything you desire because of who you are."_

 _"_ _I think you're right."_

Lightning had noticed that his magic was more responsive now. Had he proved himself worthy to the mother snake? Glade had told him the story of the mother snake. Centuries ago there was just one magical snake. She gave birth to all other magical snakes, she also gave man the ability to speak to her children in hopes that they would learn to work together. When the mother snake passed away she used the last of her magic to become part of magic itself. Now the mother snake looks for those, be they two leggers or snakes, who are worthy to weild all magics.

Legends says those who wish to be worthy must pure of heart, must be willing to die for others, must be brave in the face of their worst fear and must be caring. If a person proves themselves worthy of the Mother Snake she blesses them with the power needed to bring about mighty change.

Lightning certainly felt more powerful but he did not feel like he had done anything huge to prove his worthiness. He gave up trying to figure it out at that point and turned to the closet. It had a few wizarding robes in it, clearly his size. It seemed that one of the adults had planned for him to stay there. He pulled the clothes out and tried to figure out how to put them on.

After a lot of trial and error he correctly put on a pair of green day robes that matched his eyes. Lyla said he looked very kingly and handsome. He told her to pop to him if she needed anything but that he would return in the evening. He left the guest room and looked around. The sun had been up for at least an hour but it seemed that no was up and about.

His brothers had said they would play with him and he wanted to do that now. Surely they would be up by now? He went to portrait of the fat lady and said hello.

"Hello madam. Fred, George and Ron told me that I just needed to say the password to get in. Are they still inside?"

"Of course. They won't be up for a few hours. I'd just leave them be dearie and come back later they won't be much fun until they are awake. Just go down and get your breakfast. This castle is very large plenty of places to explore."

"Thanks madam. Before I go what's your name?"

"The students here call me the fat lady but my name is Gloria."

"Can I call you Gloria?"

"I would be honored dearie. What's your name?"

"My name is Lightning. At least that's what everyone calls me. They called me something different when I was baby but I didn't know that till yesterday."

"I understand. I'll just call you Lightning."

"Thanks Gloria."

So Lightning began his explorations. Being able to see magic made the castle look fantastic. He could see secret passages and that the stairs moved. He wandered down a while trying to remember the way to the Great Hall. This was when he met someone who in another lifetime would've been his school boy nemesis.

"Hey. Who are you?" A blonde haired boy asked.


	7. Different Blood

**Chapter 7! It's a new point of view for this one! I hope you enjoy the change of pace compared to the other ones. Tell me what you think in a review!**

Draco Malfoy had decided to stay over at Hogwarts during the winter break because he did not want to go to France with his mother. He had been alone as both Crabbe and Goyle had plans. He had been wandering when he saw a boy his age that wasn't wearing school robes nor was he recognizable. The boy looked wealthy if the haircut was any indication and he wandered the castle like he owned it. Draco was interested.

"Hello, my name is Lightning." Lightning said extending his hand as he had been taught the other day.

"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." The blonde boy answered as he shook the hand. "Interesting name Lightning, do you not have a surname?"

"Surname you mean like a second name?" Lightning asked.

"Of course what were you raised in the forest?"

"Yes. I grew up in the forbidden forest." Lightning answered honestly. "I don't have a surname because snakes don't need them."

"Snakes?" Malfoy asked confused.

"Yes I can speak to them. Would you like to see?"

"Of course."

Malfoy was never one to turn down a challenge and it would be interesting to see how Parseltongue worked so he followed the strange boy back up the towers. As they walked they talked.

"If you grew up in the forest why are you here now?" Malfoy asked.

"My friend Sevrus invited me to stay here for Christmas. Snakes don't celebrate Christmas and I've always wanted to."

"Your friend?" Malfoy sputtered. "Did you just say Severus Snape was your friend?"

"Yes. Why is he your friend too?"

"He is my godfather. That is much more important than a friend." Malfoy said importantly.

"What is a godfather?"

"When a baby is born a man who is close to the parents is named Godfather, he becomes like a second father. If both parents die the Godfather takes the child in."

"I wish I had a godfather. My parents were killed when I was just a baby. I've been on my own since."

"What happened to them? If you don't mind me asking?"

"Sevrus told me that they were killed by an evil wizard. He was defeated just shortly after that. I can't remember the name." Lightning answered. "What about your parents?"

"My father is Lucius Malfoy. He is a very powerful pureblood, very wealthy." Draco explained pompously.

"Pureblood? What does that mean?"

"Well Pureblood refers to wizards who have good strong wizarding ancestry. They are much better than wizards or witches that come from non-magical families."

"Why? I mean does having a pureblooded ancestry make you more powerful?"

"Well not necessarily. It just makes you a better wizard."

"How? My snake mother told me to never judge an enemy based on silly notions like parentage because you never know what he has in his fangs."

"That's solid advice. I don't know how it makes a wizard better I just know that it does." This time however Draco seemed less sure of himself.

"Who taught you that? Maybe I could ask them and they could explain. Sevrus said I should try my best to learn everything there is to know about the Wizarding world."

"My father taught me that. He always told me I was better because my blood was pure."

"Is your blood a different color then?"

"No it's red like everyone else's."

"Does it smell different or do something special?"

"No, it's just regular blood."

"I don't understand if it's regular blood then why does it make you better?"

Malfoy had no answer to that. The ideas he had been raised to believe seemed silly when introduced to the logic of a relative outsider. They came up to a door and Lightning paused.

"I am going to introduce you to Lyla. She laid her eggs a while ago and she can be kind of testy if you get to close. She is really nice though. Just don't get close to the eggs and she won't snap at you."

"I understand." Draco said.

They entered the room and Draco's eyes were drawn to the bright blue snake that was sitting on a brood of seven eggs. She hissed a greeting at them. Draco's eyes widened as his companion hissed back easily. Lightning turned and looked at him.

"Well introduce yourself. She understands English so I'll just translate her responses."

Draco cleared his throat and bowed a small bow before speaking.

"My name is Draco Malfoy. It is a pleasure to meet such a beautiful expecting mother."

The snake bobbed her head and hissed quickly at him. Lightning smiled at the snake while he translated.

"She says thanks and that she thinks you're very handsome yourself. She thinks you would make a great potion brewer."

"Really how would she know that?" Draco asked excited.

"Magical snakes can sense things about people it is one of their gifts. She smelled the smells of potion ingredients and sensed a drive to prove yourself. She connected the two using her magic."

"Amazing."

"Yeah, Lyla is pretty wonderful." Lightning said with a smile. "Draco do you know where the great hall is? I only arrived here yesterday and I have no idea where to go to get breakfast."

"Of course. I can lead you there. Follow me."

As they walked Draco decided to ask more about the boy next to him while he tried mull over the arguments he had made about blood purity.

"So do you know how to do any magic?"

"Yes. My snake mother taught me the magic of the snakes. It doesn't use a wand and requires intent and strength of will instead of carefully worded spells."

"Care to show me?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Can you make me fly?"

"Yeah."

Lightning waved his hand with a smile and used his finger to direct the flight of the blonde boy. Draco shouted in surprise at first but then began to enjoy the ride. Eventually Lightning gently landed the boy.

"That's some pretty powerful magic." Draco complimented.

"Yeah mum told me a few times that wizards often ignore other kinds of magic because they think they are more powerful and that she would bite me if I ever acted like that." Lightning said with a wince.

"What kind of snake is your mum?"

"She is a yellow boa. She was born a normal non magical snake but a wizard experimented on her before selling her to a student. She ran away to the forbidden forest and found me. She helped me survive when I first arrived in the forest and I helped her."

"How big is she?"

"She is as long as two of me!"

"Wow."

"Draco?"

"Yes?"

"What is it like to be a wizard? I mean I am a wizard but I don't know anything about it."

This was apparently the right question because it allow Draco Malfoy to introduce Lightning to the intricacies of pureblooded wizard society. He told him about quidditch, wizarding games, and culture. He explained how the government worked. Lightning interrupted often to ask questions that often caused Malfoy to question his long taught beliefs. They ate an early breakfast in the almost completely deserted great hall. That was when Draco came to a scary realization.

"You don't know how to read?"

"I grew up in the forest. Snakes don't need to write things down or read things. So no one could teach me." Lightning said with a shrug.

"That is unacceptable. Anyone who is friends with me must be able to read."

"Are you sure I'm smart enough to learn how?"

"I'm positive. In fact I am so sure I'll teach you myself."

So Malfoy led Lightning to the dungeons and the Slytherin common rooms. Inside was carvings of snakes and a portrait of man who glared at everyone. He looked important.

"Who is that?"

"That's Salazar Slytherin." Draco explained. "He was the founder of our house. He valued cunning and ambition. His portrait is here but he won't talk to anyone."

"Can I try?" Lightning asked.

"I don't see why not."

Lightning walked up to the portrait and switched into his natural tongue.

 _"_ _Hello, you look like a user of the snake magics. I am merely a student currently."_

The portrait so surprised at being addressed jumped and yelped. Then he calmed and looked down at the boy who addressed him.

 _"_ _You have been chosen by the Mother Snake. I can see it. She chose well. You will do great things."_

 _"_ _Thank you Salazar."_

 _"_ _I left a room in the castle that holds a chamber. Anyone who speaks the snakes tongue can enter it and call for the king of snakes for the defense of the school but only true users of the snake magic can access my library. It holds many books filled with knowledge."_

 _"_ _I cannot yet read. I was raised by a wonderful snake who did not find it prudent to teach me human knowledge."_

 _"_ _When you learn to read go to the second floor girl's bathroom."_ Salazar instructed. _"There will be a metal tube with a snake carved into it. Speak in the snake tongue and ask it to lead you to my quarters. It will sense that you are a user and open up the passageway. Return to me once you have been there."_

 _"_ _I will thank you sir."_

Lightning turned to see the stunned face of Draco Malfoy. Lightning merely shrugged.

"He was waiting for someone who used the snake magic to talk to. He is pretty nice."

"Amazing."

"Yeah he said it was important that I need to learn to read. He understood why I didn't know though."

"Very well. We must tell Uncle Sev that you talked to the portrait. After your first lesson of course."

So for the rest of the morning Draco Malfoy taught Lightning how to read. When he puts his mind to it he is surprisingly a very patient teacher. Lightning, when he tries, is a very quick learner. He learned his alphabet quite quickly as if it was some long forgotten language. Draco would write out simple sentences for Lightning to read out loud.

They were simple things but both boys felt pride when Lightning was able to get through them. It seemed to Lightning that he was certainly smart enough to read. He felt giddy that another thing his relatives had taught him had been wrong. When lunch came around neither boy really wanted to stop. They did however have a visitor.

There were only six students staying over during this winter break. Four Gryffindors and two Slytherins. The other Slytherin was a 6th year who Draco had never spoken too. At that moment the Slytherin walked in looking pretty harassed.

"Malfoy." Tso snapped.

"What is it Tso?"

"Why do you have a non snake in our dorms? That's against the rules."

"I invited him here to teach him how to read." Draco answered honestly. "Besides I think he is more snake than either of us. Salazar's portrait talked to him."

"What?" Tso ran over at that point. "He talked to you?"

"Yes. He was pretty nice. Do you want to see?"

"Of course I want to see." Tso said.

Lightning got up and walked over to the portrait.

 _"_ _Why do they find it so hard to believe me?"_

 _"_ _I haven't spoken to anyone in living memory. There so few snake speakers even rarer is the snake magic users. You are the first I've met in 200 years. It takes a special wizard to use this kind of magic and many of those who could learn it are unwilling."_

 _"_ _I didn't know it was that rare. Mother told me I would be special but not that special."_

 _"_ _I wish to meet your mother when you return here next. You are clearly well taught. She should be commended."_

 _"_ _I will send her your regards I will see what I can do about convincing her to come to the castle."_

 _"_ _Good now go back to your studies."_

Lightning walked away and sat down so that he could face both boys.

"See he is a nice guy. I mean I know you couldn't understand what we were saying but he is pretty amazing."

"What did you talk about?" Tso asked.

"Snake magic. Apparently I'm the first used he has met in the last 200 years."

"Amazing." Tso said. "Well I've got to get back to my studies. Malfoy be careful the Weasley boys are on a rampage. Apparently they've lost their newest brother and are razing the castle looking for him."

"Do you mean Ron, Fred and George?" Lightning asked.

"Yes the three youngest Weasley brothers. Do you know them?"

"I met them yesterday. They were really nice."

"The Weasley's were nice to you, a Parselmouth?" Tso asked.

"Yeah we met at lunch Sevrus was taking me to the Great Hall to introduce me to pudding. They don't have it where I'm from." Lightning said ignoring Draco's snort. "They were the first humans my age I've ever met so I asked Sevrus if I could play with them. Then I used my magic to prank them. We're brothers now apparently."

"You pranked the Weasley twins?" Draco asked.

"Yeah I made bright multicolored feathers grow all over them."

"Amazing."

Draco was saying that a lot lately and so was everyone who spent more than a few moments around Lightning.

"Well if you're their new brother then they are looking for you. I suggest not keeping them waiting they told me they were going to teach you how to fly."

"Fly? Snakes don't fly."

"Huh? Whatever bye guys." Tso said while leaving.

Lightning turned back to the paper to begin but Draco interrupted him.

"Lightning. I think you should go. They are looking for you."

"But I'm spending time with you. You are my friend too. I can spend time with them after lunch." Lightning said. "I am nervous to go flying. Snakes belong on the earth not in the air."

"You'll do fine." Draco assured. "Let's go get lunch. We can pick this up tomorrow morning."

"Sounds great! I really want to know how to do this."

So Draco led his new friend to the Great Hall for lunch. There they were met with the snarling face of Severus Snape. Draco paled, he had only seen his godfather this angry a few times and it had never been pleasant. Those few instances always included a lot of ranting and raving. Draco's physical reaction was nothing compared to Lightning's though.


	8. Snakes Do Not Fly

**Chapter 8! This one has potions and flying lessons. There is also a story from the snake lore in the end. Most of this is from my own head so if you have any questions feel free to ask themin a review!**

That angry face too much like Sir's made Lightning freeze for a moment before he began to tremble. He could feel the anger coming off of Severus in waves. His mind going into panic mode his magic answered his call. Protect.

The magic began whipping the air up into a frenzy but Lightning didn't notice he was already in his mind recalling different times Sir had been that angry. The magic was moving faster and faster. It wasn't until Draco acted.

"Lightning. Calm down. Severus is your friend. He won't hurt you."

The magic instantly died down as Lightning was brought back into awareness. He looked around and saw a messed up Great hall, a scared looking Draco and a stricken-looking Severus.

"Sevrus, you looked just like Sir for a minute."

"I'm so sorry Lightning. I was angry because I was worried about you. You didn't tell anyone where you were going."

"Oh. That's a silly thing to be worried about Sevrus. I was spending time with Draco. I met him this morning and he is really nice. He taught me the alphabet today."

Severus looked at him as if he wanted to say something before motioning that they sit down. Lightning knew that Severus wasn't angry but he was still a little nervous. So he sat on the other side of the table. Lightning served himself food and waited for Severus to talk.

"So what have you done today?"

"I took care of Lyla, and then I went out to find breakfast. I met Draco and we talked. I introduced him to Lyla and then he led me to the Great Hall. Draco has taught me a lot of stuff today."

"Oh like what?"

"He told me what a pureblood was. I still don't quite understand it yet but Draco says that once he understands it he will explain it to me."

"What are you two confused about it?" Severus asked trying to mask his excitement.

"Well he told me that having pure blood makes a wizard better than another wizard that doesn't. But his blood is normal blood it's not a special color or smell and it doesn't do anything that other blood can't do. He told me that purebloods are not naturally magically stronger than those who aren't." Lightning explained. "I just don't understand how such a thing makes a wizard better."

"My father taught me that but he never really did explain." Draco added.

"Boys I want you to listen closely. I want you to think hard about what I'm going to say. If you take two wizards dress them in the same clothing and look at them you will not be able to tell who is the pureblood and who is the muggleborn. Our ancestry does not make one wizard better or worse than another."

"Are your sure Professor?" Draco asked. "Father always told me…"

"You're father has always been sure of his own importance. There are times he is wrong just as there are times that I am wrong. This time I am however certain. Draco if you wish to discuss this more with me come and visit me this evening."

"Okay Professor."

"Now what else did Draco teach you Lightning?"

"He told me about wizarding customs. There are a lot and I'm not sure I remember them all but apparently there are a lot of ways to offend wizards. Then he took me down to his common room and taught me the alphabet and how to sound out words."

"You're forgetting the most important part!" Draco said. "Slytherin's portrait talked to him. I mean they had like two conversations."

"You spoke to the portrait? In parseltongue I presume."

"Yeah he was waiting to talk to another user of snake magic. He seems like a nice man. He answered a lot of questions I had and even told me how to get to his personal library." Lightning said. "I told him I didn't know how to read so a library would hardly be useful. He said that I needed to learn to read right away."

Severus leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose with two of his fingers. He did this whenever he was trying to comprehend something. He did this a lot around Lightning. Lightning smiled at him and waited for Severus to come to whatever conclusion he was going to come to.

"Very well. I was planning on inviting you to see someone brew potions. You asked me about that before and I wasn't able to show you since you lived in the forest and not in a potions lab."

"The Weasley's were going to try and teach me to fly today and I'm really scared about that. Snakes do not belong in the air."

"Are you asking me to require you to have a potions lesson so you can put of learning to fly on a broomstick?"

"I would never." Lightning said while nodding his yes violently.

Severus couldn't help it, as he often couldn't around his young friend. He laughed a deep bellow. Draco looked stunned. He had rarely seen his godfather laugh and almost never this hard. Severus calmed and smiled.

"Very well. I require you to attend a brewing session this afternoon." Severus said in a stern tone.

"Thank you Sevrus. Draco do you want to come or do you have other plans?"

"I suppose I could spend some of my precious time with you Lightning." Draco said with an air of suffering.

"Awesome!"

As they went down to the dungeons they met up with the Weasley's. They had been scouring the castle looking for him. They engulfed him in a hug which confused the boy to no end.

"What was that for? We aren't popping anywhere are we?"

"No mate. We were just hugging you to say hello." George explained.

"Humans hug each other all the time, especially if they are family." Fred explained

"We've been looking for you everywhere. Where were you?" Ron asked.

"I met a new friend!" Lightning said excitedly pulling Draco over who had been moving farther away. "This is Draco Malfoy. I met him this morning and he's been teaching me all this cool stuff."

Lightning was confused when they started glaring at each other.

"Lightning why are you hanging out with that ferret?" Ron demanded.

"Draco isn't a ferret! Don't say mean things to my friend Ron. I met Draco this morning and he has been really nice."

"Fred!" George said. "Help me check our new brother for a confundus charm!"

"Righto! No little brother of ours would befriend a Slytherin."

"I befriended Sevrus first." Lightning reminded them first. "If we go by that then I shouldn't have befriended you since my first friend was Sevrus."

"Hmm. I suppose." Fred said.

"Why did you befriend Malfoy anyway?" Ron asked.

"He answered all the questions I had, there were a lot of them and he never got annoyed with me. He even taught me the alphabet today. I didn't think I was smart enough to learn to read but Draco said I was." Lightning said. "You'd better be nice to each other or I'll use my snake magic on you. Only other snake magic users can undo snake magic spells so if I spell you you'll be stuck that way!"

All four boys turned a little green at the thought. They knew Lightning didn't joke around. They all nodded and agreed to try and get along. Snape said nothing. He thought that if anyone could get Gryffindors and Slytherins to get along it was Lightning.

"Lightning. I need to speak to you about your human birth name. I think you should consider using it." Severus said.

"Mate you have a human name?" Ron asked.

"What is it?"

"Is it embarrassing?"

"Why didn't you tell me that first?" Draco demanded.

"I don't like my human name Severus. It doesn't translate well into the snake tongue. If I used that I'd be a laughing stock!"

"How does it translate?"

"I would be king dishmaker! That's a ridiculous name."

Snape laughed.

"Nevertheless. It is a distinguished name in Wizarding society. I know your mother quite liked your first name. She always wanted to name her first son that."

"Would you-" George began.

"-tell us your name already?" Fred finished.

"No. I like the name my Snake Mother gave me. Sevrus we can discuss this later. Can we go down to the dungeons now?"

If Snape was disappointed or even surprised at the denial of his human name he didn't show it. Instead he looked at the other three boys.

"Lightning has never attended a potions class and I've required him to come with me for a lesson. Mr. Malfoy is already coming with us."

The boys looked at each other and gulped before nodded.

"We'll come too."

Lightning smiled at his friends. They continued the walk down to the dungeons while Harry plied Severus with questions. How did brewing work? What kinds of things did you use other than snake parts? Did you need a wand? What were they brewing today? Could he help or should he just watch? The four boys were amazed at the patience Severus answered the questions. He never got angry only pleased that the boy was so interested. When they got down to the dungeons Snape commanded them to set up five cauldrons.

Lightning followed the others and grabbed one of the cauldrons. The room smelt funny and he wasn't sure if he liked it at all. They each went to their own table and Draco was right next to Lightning on the left while Ron was on the right. The Twins were behind him. Snape stood and began the class in a way he never did during the school year. He explained each step in detail. He told them why you needed to do things in a certain way. He kept his voice calm and considerate.

By the end of the three hour lesson. Five perfectly good calming draughts had been brewed. Lightning had loved the lesson and almost wished he could do these things all the time. But no his snakes needed him. If he was not there then hazards like Drake could return and hurt the hatchlings. Once they cleaned up Snape lead them to the great hall for dinner.

Lightning still couldn't get over the ceiling that had magic to make it look like the sky. He wanted to do that with his own house. How did they do it? Without thinking very much about it Lightning felt his magic lift him up into the air. Suddenly he was right next to the ceiling which looked even nicer up close. He touched it and let his magic sight work. The ceiling was a magnificent piece of magic and Lightning could feel the nebulous push and pull of the magic. After a moment he heard the shouting.

"Lightning! Get down here!" Severus shouted.

Lightning suddenly realized how high he was in the air and he suddenly began to drop, quickly. He yelped and suddenly a dozen wands were launching charms at him to slow his descent. He landed softly on the ground and smiled at the people around him.

"Sorry. My magic has been doing that a lot lately."

"Doing what?" Ron asked.

"Well." Lightning said trying to find the right words to explain as he sat down at the table. "Before when I did magic I had to ask for it to work you know. Now my magic is really eager to do whatever I want. I was just thinking about the ceiling and how they made it like that and then suddenly I was there."

"You say your magic is eager?" Dumbledore asked with a light twinkling in his eye

"Yes." Lightning said with a nod of his head. "I will have to ask mother about it when I return home but she said something like this might happen a long time ago."

"Like what?" Severus pushed.

"I was chosen by the Snake Mother. I am no longer a user of magic I am a master. I don't know what I did to prove my worth but I am worthy."

"Snake mother?" George asked.

"What's a Snake mother?" Fred added.

"I've never heard of that." Draco scoffed.

"Neither have I." Ron added

The adults all had looks of confusion on their faces. Lightning's jaw dropped. How could they not know such an important story? The story of the beginning of all intelligent and magical snakes. They had no idea who the Snake Mother was. It was a horrifying oversight. Then again who would have told it to them? None of them could speak to snakes. But surely one of the last speakers would've written the story down? Lightning considered the problem from multiple angles before standing up.

"I'll be right back." He said running out of the room.

Lightning barely felt his magic helping him run quickly to his rooms. He got to his room in almost no time. He rushed over to Lyla.

 _"_ _Lyla. The two leggers do not know the story of the Snake Mother! Can I tell it to them?"_

The expecting mother seemed to consider this for a moment before answering.

 _"_ _You have been chosen by the Snake Mother. That has not happened in many years, centuries. I think it would be best if you told them the story. Make sure to tell the story of the first chosen as well."_

 _"_ _Thank you Lyla."_

With that Lightning was gone and running down the corridors and stairs to the great hall. He ran right back into the room and sat down barely out of breath. He sat down next to Ron and Draco.

"Where did you go mate?" Ron asked.

"My room. I had to ask Lyla if I could tell you the story of the Snake Mother."

"You went all the way up there in just 2 minutes?" Severus demanded.

"Yes." Lightning said simply.

Lightning began helping himself to food while trying to figure out how to begin the story. A way that would make sense in English.

"Millenia ago. Back when snakes and man were no better than beasts of burden magic began touching them. Humans and snakes soon developed languages and civilizations. Side by side but enemies. When the first humans were gifted with enough magic to use it, the Snake Mother was born." Harry explained.

"So you mean that we couldn't read or write or do anything until we had magic?" Fred asked.

"Yes. Magic is within every single one of us. It gives us our minds and our consciousness. Humans used this to create large cities and do many amazing things. Snakes used it to try and outdo each other. One Snake would develop a type of venom and another would use his gift to develop another type."

"Wicked."

"The Snake Mother was the first snake who could use magic knowingly. She was powerful and wise. She saw the problems between the two races. Humans hated and feared snakes and Snakes hated and feared humans. She felt that if we could speak to one another we could learn to work together. She used her magic and bit a human she felt was worthy. This human became the first speaker. The speakers name was Evelynn and she tried her best to do what the Snake Mother wished but it was not to be." Lightning continued sadly. "For her gift to the other humans was seen to be evil and wrong. Evelynn was killed by her own kind for her gift. Evelynn had born children so the gift to speak continued on but those born with the gift were taught to keep it secret by the Snake Mother. The Snake Mother had many clutches in her life and she blessed each clutch with different magics. Thus was the beginning of all magical snakes."

"This story happened a long time ago right?" Ron asked suddenly fearful for his friend.

"Yes. The Snake Mother died but not before telling her children that she would always look over the earth. When she died her body did not stay and decay instead it became masked in light. Her spirit had become part of magic itself. It is the belief among snakes that the first of a race to be blessed with the use of magic becomes part of magic itself to represent that race. We have no proof however that it has happened to anyone else other than the Snake Mother." Harry added. "There have been times throughout the history that a being either snake or human has been chosen by the Snake Mother. When they are chosen they are not just users of magic, they are one with magic. They are chosen because they have shown themselves to be good loyal beings who would do anything for others. Only those with the highest amount of good within them can be chosen since the chosen ones are so powerful they can level mountains with a sweep of their hand or so it is said."

"You say you've been chosen?" Albus inquired.

"All the snakes think so and so does the portrait downstairs that only speaks in parseltongue. What was his name Draco?"

"Salazar Slytherin." He breathed out.

"Yes him." Lightning said with a smile. "I was just chosen a few days ago. I don't know what I did to be chosen. I can't seem to figure it out."

Lightning turned to his meal then and began devouring it with his hands. He ignored the looks the others gave him. He knew that humans used utensils he had just never learned how. Why would a snake need a knife or fork? It seemed however that the three Weasley boys thought he had a good idea and proceeded to eat their food with their hands as well. Lightning smiled at them. After a few minutes conversation began to flow again but Lightning didn't pay it much mind. He was busying trying out every type of food on the table. When faced with something new, one of the humans his age would supply him with the name and their opinion.

Lightning would always stiffen when a new person entered and sat down. They all seemed to be interested in him. Draco sensed his nervousness and told him the names of each adult as they entered. The last adult to enter however Lightning recognized. It was the protector! All beings in the forest knew that the protector was a good human. Lightning jumped up and smiled at the giant man.

"Hello, My name is Lightning." He said extending his hand just as he had learned. "It's a pleasure to meet the protector."

"Protector?" The man asked.

"That's your name in the forest. All the beings in the forest know that you are a protector. Even the giant spiders like you and they don't like anybody."

"You met Aragog?" The man asked.

"No I met his mate. She wasn't very friendly. We made a deal that I would keep the snakes away from their area and they would stay out of my area."

"Yeah Aragog never did like snakes. My name is Hagrid." He said shaking Lightning's outstretched hand.

"Hagrid." Lightning repeated slowly.

He let go of his hand and went back to his seat. Severus who was sitting right in front of him raised his eyebrow in question.

"Hagrid is a respected being of the forest. He has saved many of my snakes lives before. He also protected the Unicorns earlier in the year from the dark presence."

"You knew who Hagrid was?"

"Yes but I never spoke to him. He never went that deep into the forest." Lightning answered.

When the meal was finished Lightning was pulled out onto the quidditch pitch where everyone came to watch him try and learn to fly. The Weasley's and Draco all had their own brooms, despite there being a rule against first years having one, and gave him one of the schools. Lightning put it on the ground and stood next to it.

"Tell it to come up into your hand. Say Up!" Ron commanded.

Harry commanded the broom in a tone much more confident than he felt. That however did not seem to bother the broom at all for it shot directly into his hand. They helped him get into a good position and then gave him the most inane directions of all.

"Now just kick up and fly." Fred said.

"Just fly? What if I fall off?"

"You won't."

Lightning gulped. This did not seem at all safe. He gripped the broom so hard his knuckles were white and he jumped. Suddenly he was in the air and zooming around. His body seem to know what to do while his mind was still back on the ground. He was high in the air and doing loops when he finally realized he was flying. Before he could feel any fear the adrenaline kicked in and he realized he liked flying.

On the ground one always had to be wary, that was why he had built his home in the trees. The feeling of complete freedom and safety was intoxicating to Lightning. He turned his broom straight up and started climbing up towards the clouds. The air got colder and crisper which is hard to do when the ground is already covered in snow. He got to a point where everyone on the ground seemed tiny and small and leveled out. He felt calm and collected.

It wasn't until he heard the shouts that he looked down and saw that those below him were worried. He saw the children his age were coming to meet him. He waved at them while he sat and looked at the clouds. It took them awhile but eventually they met him.

"I told you!" Ron shouted. "You can fly."

"That was some-"

"-Great flying mate."

"Why did you fly all the way up here?" Draco asked.

"I wanted to see what clouds looked like up close." Lightning answered. "That and so I can do this."

Suddenly he was straddling the broom again and flying straight down towards the ground. Leaving his friends behind he sped towards the ground. It was exhilarating to be in such control. As the ground came closer and closer the idea of pulling up flitted into his mind. No not yet. He could go a little farther. He pulled up just as he was going to crash into the ground and he flew along the ground his feet leaving tracks in the snow. He slowed down and he jumped off the broom. Once he was there he was rushed by Severus.

"What were you thinking? You could've been killed!" He shouted.

"No. I would've been fine. You were here." Lightning said as if that was the simplest thing in the world.

Severus had nothing to say to that. The others landed shortly after that and they went inside. Lightning felt happy and light. He laughed and joked. He went to his room late and slept deeply. Thus began a week long festivity. Every morning he would meet Draco for a reading and writing lesson. Then he would have lunch and learn things from the Weasley's. They taught him about chess, quidditch, and candy. Then after dinner he would spend time with Severus. Each evening Severus would introduce him to a new professor.

He enjoyed speaking with each adult. He showed them his magic and they showed him theirs. It was on Christmas eve that Lightning realized he had nothing to give to all the people he had met. He had never ever given gifts before.


	9. The Perfect Gifts

**Chapter 9! Well this is one of my favorite chapters. I think you'll enjoy it too! Review and tell me what you think.**

"Severus. How do you give gifts?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well. I've never celebrated any kind of human thing before. I know you give gifts to your friends and family on Christmas. How?"

"Do you want to give gifts?" He asked.

"Yes but I don't know what to give to people."

"Well first you think about what those people like and then you find something that is part of their interest. Then you wrap the present in colorful paper and give it to them." Severus explained.

So they spent that evening helping Lightning create gifts for each person he had befriended. His magic was all too willing to help. For Hagrid he created a staff that would not only produce light for when he went into the forest but if he ever needed help he could use it to call for Lightning. For Ron he created a seer stone. His mother had told him that Ron had the ability to see into the future and this seer stone would help him learn to use that ability.

For the twins he created a pair of matching pendants. When worn it let you know where the other wearer was. He had told Severus that those of a doubling should never be separated from each other for too long. He gave Albus a pair of thick socks which according to Severus he would appreciate. He gave Filius and Pomona both invitations to see his home so they could see all he had done with it.

Severus helped him create a pendant for Draco. This one was charmed to let the wearer know when someone around them meant them ill will. The pendant was shaped in the form of the Malfoy family crest. He gave Poppy a vial of Asclepius venom, donated by Lyla. With it he wrote out a note that said if she ever faced a wound too grievous to heal with magic alone a few drops would save the life. Finally he had just Severus' gift to make.

"I have to ask other people what to get you. It has to be a surprise Sevrus." Lightning had said.

"Alright. Just make sure to wrap it like I taught you."

Lightning had learned that Salazar had been a potions master before he had died. He went to the Slytherin common room door and spoke the password. He walked up to the portrait and coughed.

 _"_ _Hello sir."_

 _"_ _Hello chosen one. What do you need?"_

 _"_ _I have a friend who is a potions master. I have never celebrated Christmas and I am unsure what to give him for a gift."_

 _"_ _You came to the right place. Do you remember the direction I gave you to get to my private rooms?"_

 _"_ _Yes. The second floor girls bathroom."_

 _"_ _Excellent go to my private rooms and pick out a book with the word potions on it and my name. I wrote a lot of rare books and I have multiple copies in there. Pick one and wrap it carefully."_

 _"_ _That you Salazar."_

 _"_ _Not at all Lightning."_

So Lightning made his way to the second floor girls bathroom. Severus had introduced him to a few ghosts so the girl crying in the stall didn't startle him. Instead he went directly to the sink and looked at the snake.

 _"_ _Salazar told me you could open up and lead me to his private chambers."_

 _"_ _A speaker who uses the snake magic! Of course I will open up."_

The sink lowered in on itself and revealed a well lit stairwell. Lightning made his way down the stairs confidently. The entrance closed in on itself and Lightning felt a little nervous that he wouldn't be able to get out. That was a worry for 'the future Lightning' though present Lightning needed to find a rare book.

After about fifteen minutes of spelunking Lightning found an ornate door was barring his path. He tried the handle and found it to be locked. He let his magic channel through his hand and waved his hand. The door unlocked easily. Someone had locked it using snake magic! He opened the door and found a cozy sitting room. The room was covered in dust and it was clear no one had been in there for decades.

The dust was so thick in places it looked to be as long as his fingers. There was a fire place that had the driest wood inside. Lightning concentrated and let a fire escape his fingers and catch on the logs. Once the fireplace was burning merrily, Lightning began waving his hands around so that a light wind began stirring. The dust began flying around causing him to cough.

After ten minutes of cleaning, the room looked alive again. Lightning looked at his surroundings and saw three doorways leading from the sitting room. One was the bedroom. Lightning was looking for the library so he closed that door. The next door was a bathroom and the final was the library. He went in and sneezed at the amount of dust he kicked up just walking around. The library was the largest room and it had hundreds of books. Each coated in dust. He went along till he found the section titled Potions.

Three large bookshelves were dedicated to Potions alone. He looked for one that had the correct author and saw that one of the bookshelves was filled with books written by Salazar himself. He looked around for one that looked nice and interesting. There was a red leather bound book that was titled. "Werewolf research". It was written in a loopy script and Lightning felt that it would be a good choice since there were two copies of that one. He picked up the book carefully and dusted it off. He carried it close to his chest. He memorized the sitting room. He did not wish to walk back and risk Severus seeing the gift so he decided to pop directly back to his rooms but he wanted to remember how to get back there.

He called to his snake magic and popped himself right back into his own rooms. As he wrapped the precious book he spoke with Lyla.

 _"_ _Your eggs are due to be born at any time."_

 _"_ _They are hard and ready. It is only a short time before they begin to hatch. You will be there yes?"_

 _"_ _Of course. I love your hatchlings very much and would not miss their hatching."_

 _"_ _You are sure they are healthy?"_

 _"_ _I have blessed them with all my might that they may be so. I have no doubt that they will be successful tomorrow. In fact I intend to stay up with you since Slicer cannot be here."_

 _"_ _I miss him."_

 _"_ _I know. Once the hatchlings are out of the shell and ready to pop home we will be returning there. Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest the evening at the latest."_

 _"_ _I do hope everything went well in your absence."_

 _"_ _I shudder to think what would happen if my kingdom were attacked while I was not there to protect it."_

 _"_ _Your defeat of Drake will likely keep the kingdom safe for some time."_

 _"_ _I hope you are right Lyla."_

The night wore on and it wasn't until 3 in the morning that the first egg began to crack. Lightning had been practicing his writing when Lyla had hissed in excitement. He was instantly by her side. He hissed encouragements to the babies. The first one out was the grumpy male who reminded him of Severus. He was a handsome snake who immediately demanded to be fed.

The next one was the doublings. The two snakes emerged at the same time and looked the same. The next was the one who reminded him of the descriptions of his birth mother. Each one demanded to be fed and were howling in exhaustion. Lightning had created a pile of good food for newly hatched snakelings and helped Lyla feed them. The next two, the cocky arrogant one and the quiet mischievous one, were instantly were close friends.

The final one. The one who was independent and did not want Lightning's help hatched last after hours of grueling work. It was a female snake and it had glorious emerald eyes. She demanded to be fed and while complaining about how hard her shell was. Lyla was pleased that all of her hatchlings were strong enough to stay alive. It was at 10 in the morning that Lightning leaned back exhausted. The seven newly born snakes were rested and Lyla was arranging them to her liking.

 _"_ _What will you name them?"_

 _"_ _They name themselves. I know some species of snake pass on their names but my species are born with our names."_

 _"_ _What are their names?"_

 _"_ _I don't know. I will ask when they awaken. Hatching is an exhausting process. We all need rest."_

 _"_ _I agree."_

Lightning was sitting on the floor his back against the bed. He was just about to doze off when a polite knock on the door startled him. He calmed Lyla while cautiously asking who it was.

"It is Severus. Are you okay Lightning?"

"I've been up all night helping with the hatching. You can come in but don't come too close. Lyla is protective."

Severus cautiously opened the door and walked slowly in. Lightning smiled and pointed at the seven newly hatched snakes that were sleeping deeply. Lyla was curled around them and hissing sternly. Lightning nodded at the mother and levitated over a brightly wrapped pile of presents.

"She wants us to leave so she can rest. Severus let's celebrate Christmas."

"Alright. Come Lightning. The first thing a human child does is open his presents. Your friends have been waiting to open theirs with you for quite some time."

"I got presents?"

"Of course you did. Now come. Even Draco is in Gryffindor Tower waiting for you to come much to his chagrin. All the professors are there as well. It seems they all got you gifts."

"They didn't have to do that." Lightning said dismayed.

"They wanted to just as you wanted to give them gifts."

Severus pushed him towards the portrait hole that had opened. Lightning climbed in with the presents floating behind him. Ron cheered when he saw him. Lightning smiled and wiggled his fingers sending everyone's gift into their laps. The children were seating on the ground and the adults in chairs, everyone in a large circle. Lightning sat down in between Ron and Draco. The boys pushed large pile of presents towards him.

"For me?" He stuttered out.

"Yes Lightning now open them." George said.

"We've been waiting for hours mate!"

"Sorry. The hatching took all night."

"The eggs hatched?" Draco asked excitedly.

"Yes all seven snakes were strong and healthy. They are resting now but we were up all night helping them."

"What are their names?"

Lightning shrugged.

"I don't know. I didn't ask them before they fell asleep. Hatching is very exhausting." Lightning answered. "Open your presents. I worked really hard on them."

Ron opened his present first and removed the slightly glowing stone with reverence.

"You got me a seer stone?"

"Yeah. Mother said you could make a wonderful seer if you practiced but you can't do that without the right equipment."

Fred and George loved their matching pendants and put them on immediately. They gave him a hug. Draco also enjoyed his present and felt it appropriate for someone of his status. Pomona and Flitwick were overjoyed at the invitation to visit. Minerva's cat bed was soft and firm and she smiled when he told her that the matching pair was in his home for her if she ever visited.

Dumbledore had to wipe away tears at the thoughtful gift of socks. Hagrid loved the staff and gave him a firm hug. Poppy was overjoyed at the rare healing balm and she had to stop herself from leaving immediately to store it properly. The final gift was Severus'. Lightning sat on edge watching as the man shook the gift. He unwrapped it slowly uncovering the ancient leather.

Severus gasped when he read the title. He looked up at Lightning who was smiling at him.

"Did I get a good gift?" Lightning asked.

"What did you get him?" Albus asked not being able to see the title of the book now clutched possessively in the man's arms.

"A book titled Werewolf research written by Salazar Slytherin. The portrait of Salazar that's in the Slytherin common room told me that he would like it. He told me where to go to get into his secret library." Lightning answered. "Did you like it Severus?"

"It's perfect." He breathed out.

Lightning smiled and began unwrapping his presents. The Weasley's had pulled together and told their mother of their new friend. She had knitted him a thick green sweater with a letter L on it. There was also some homemade fudge which Lightning greatly appreciated. Draco had gotten him his own set of quills. They were everlast self-inking quills. They would last him years and he wouldn't need to keep around bottles of ink. Along with that gift was two books and a ream of parchment. Lightning was ecstatic.

Albus had gotten him two gifts. One was a box of chocolate frogs and the other was a strange cloak. It was light and silvery but when Lightning put it on he disappeared.

"That cloak belonged to your human father. I felt that I should return it to you."

Pomona gave him a plant that would replenish his garden and keep everything growing strong. Flitwick had given him gloves that fit his hands perfectly. When he put them on he instructed Lightning to do magic. The magic was suddenly much more direct and powerful. The gloves aided in concentrating the flow of magic.

Hagrid had given him a handmade wooden flute that Lightning adored. Minerva had given him a book filled with pictures. Inside was a note.

 _'_ _Lightning. I knew your parents when they were your age. I collected all the pictures of them I could find. I want you to know what they looked like. Love Minerva.'_

He hugged the book close and smiled at the woman who had tears in her eyes. The next gift was from Poppy. She had given him a box filled with different vials of potions. Each one was labelled clearly. Dreamless sleep, Pain potion, bruise salves. Things that a boy living in the woods would need.

Lightning loved all of his gifts. The final one was from Severus. Lightning looked up at the man who was giving him a strained smile. While still clutching the old red book to his chest as if he was afraid it would disappear if he moved too quickly.

"Normally when a human wizard turns 11 they are taken to a wizarding store and given a wand. In order to do human magic wands are a necessary tool. I invited a wand maker to come and help you find a wand. Lightning you may know plenty of magic but I know your parents would want you to learn of your heritage."

So Lighting and the rest followed Severus down to the Great Hall where a strange old man was standing with boxes upon thin boxes. When he saw Lightning he beckoned the boy over.

"Mr. Lightning. I remember selling your parents their wands. Your father's was strong and good for transfiguration and your mother's swishy and good for charms. Let us see what we can do for a king."

So for the next hour Lightning tried out every wand. Each ended in disaster. Boxes were thrown around, walls were splashed with color. Ron got zapped with an unknown jinx with one of the wands. Finally the man whose name was Ollivander pulled out a pure white box.

"This was an interesting wand. I did not know if I would be able to create it. I made it out of fancy not thinking that it would be useable by anyone. I think now however it would be perfect for you." Ollivander pulled out the wand. "It is made of Unicorn Horn and thestral tail. Life and Death in perfect balance. Go ahead and give it a wave."

The moment the wand touched Lightning's skin he knew it was the right one. It jolted through him and hummed with power. He gave it a wave and a rainbow of sparks erupted. He smiled triumphantly and turned to the crowd of friends. Severus paid for the wand and showed him how to holster it to his arm so he would never be without it. After that they sat down to have a large Christmas dinner. Lightning laughed and enjoyed himself for his final dinner at the castle. When dinner was over he stood and gave each human a hug. They thought it was strange but said nothing.

"I'm going to miss you all." Lightning said a quiver in his voice. "I'll make sure to visit another time when my kingdom is peaceful. But for now Lyla and I must return. The longer I stay the more likely it is that thousands of snakes will swarm your castle searching for me."

"You're not leaving now are you?" Ron asked.

"I've got to. I've been away too long. The hatchlings need my protection. If you want to visit I welcome any of you. Just pop to the clearing and I will let you stay for as long as you need or want. I hope I can return sometime in the future but for now my snakes need me."

Severus stood and walked over to where Lightning was standing.

"You do not have to leave if you wish to stay you are welcome here. Your parents would have approved of you staying."

Lightning shook his head and felt tears spring into his eyes.

"No. My parents died for me. They would understand that I must stay with the hatchlings to protect them. Goodbye Severus. I'll see you next Saturday."

With that Lightning called on his magic and popped directly into Gryffindor tower. He picked up his gifts and shrunk them, a spell Flitwick had taught him. He put each gift in his pockets before popping directly into his rooms. He picked up the basket that had held the eggs and placed everything else inside it. He helped the baby snakes slither inside and had Lyla curl herself around him. He popped a third of the way to his home. Two more jumps and he was home. He took Lyla and the snakes to the converted nursery and allowed her to set up a good nest. He took off the nice robe he had been wearing and put on his animal hides. He didn't want to ruin the nice human clothing. He let go of the magic that had styled his hair and it fell around him in long black waves.

He went into the den of feasting and waited. Within moments snakes came in. Many had felt him being chosen by the Snake mother. He had many gifts and pledges of loyalty. Glade his mother came in and congratulated him. He gave blessings and conferred advice. When the sun set Lightning went into the den of resting and slept among the snakes.


	10. Regrets and Chess

**Chapter 10! I am in awe about the response I have gotten so far from you guys! When I post this this story will have had 99 followers! That is totally** **insane. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I am working hard on finishing up this story so that i can upload it all within the next week. Review and tell me what you think!**

Severus felt that for a first visit to the castle it had gone very well. Lightning had enjoyed himself and promised he would try and return. The boy had even been sad at the thought of leaving. It had been a surprise to discover the boy could apparate within Hogwarts. He really should not allow Lightning to continually surprise him.

Really the boy was so powerful it was almost cliché. Severus wondered what would have happened if Lightning had stayed with his guardians. He wouldn't of ever learned the snake magic and come to Hogwarts scared and defensive. If he had even survived that long. When Lightning had told the story of the 'Snake Mother' he had not doubted its truth for a moment. Despite there being no records anywhere of such a thing something within him just _knew._ Lightning was the kind of child that said things exactly the way he thought them. He was without any kind of guile whatsoever. When he claimed to be chosen, Severus knew it was true too. He had had an interesting conversation with Albus on just that fact.

"Severus. I have never heard the story that young Lightning told us. Nor any like it."

"Nor have I and yet, I have no problem believing it."

"It speaks to your very soul with its truth doesn't it?"

"Yes. His claim of being chosen is just as true. The way he does magic so effortlessly speaks to him being a part of it."

"I agree. I can't help but wonder about his statements about those chosen."

"Chosen ones are the most good? With every interaction I have had with Lightning I can see that his soul is very light despite his background."

"I agree. He told us he was only chosen a few days before what do you think he did?"

"Honestly? I think it was taking me to the castle." Severus mused after a moments thought. "Lightning was petrified of the castle. Nothing I did would even make him consider coming. The Centaurs had been trying for years to push him to the castle to no avail. He did not want to be here, he feared this place and its inhabitants. Yet when I was injured beyond his knowledge to help he did not hesitate to almost kill himself to get me help."

"I think you are correct. The boy did loose quite a bit of magic transporting you here so quickly. He did so despite the dangers to his person and his fear. Then when you requested he stay he agreed. The boy is very giving." Albus said this with a light smile. "When I discovered that Harry Potter had been so horribly abused I felt such guilt and fear. You may recall the prophecy you gave to Voldemort. I knew Harry was going to be very powerful and much like that young man I knew so long ago. I feared that it was my mistakes that would create a new Dark Lord worse than Voldemort ever was."

Severus said nothing. He did not like to think about his part in Lily's death. Despite this he could see Albus' fears. If the boy had nursed his anger and fear of his guardians he could've become a very vindictive evil little boy. With the power he wields he could've very well done anything he wished to anyone he wished. Albus continued after a moment.

"When you confirmed to me that the scared little boy who had been living in the forest was the boy I had been so earnestly searching for I felt my heart lift. The boy who loved so much. It was clear that the boy was unable to perform such senseless violence that I feared I might've pushed him to. If Lightning had stayed there in that hell I placed him in, I fear we would've gotten a very angry boy whose magic was prepared to kill at the slightest provocation. Instead his magic whisked him away to an arguably dangerous environment where he thrived and learned to love." Albus said unshed tears in his eyes. "The fears I have now for the future of the wizarding world are greatly diminished. When Voldemort returns I know that Lightning will be able to defeat him and that he will be able to do it for the right reasons. He will not attack Voldemort out of revenge or because he wants to prove he is stronger. Now he will do it so he can protect those he loves and cares for. I know that his reasonings in that final fight will be imperative for the outcome."

Severus couldn't help but agree. The idea of his friend seeking revenge for anything was silly to him. Unless someone attacked his snakes violently. The way he had dispatched of the Wyvern when Severus had been injured had been horrific. Yet the boy seeking out Voldemort to avenge his parents deaths would not happen. Nor would the boy feel the need to prove his strength.

Lightning was scared of being overpowered but he wasn't petrified by it. More than anything he was cautious about strangers he could not easily defeat. Lightning however would not seek out those who were his equal and fight them to show dominance. The boy did things out of good intentions. Every time. He smiled lightly. His young friend was fundamentally good despite all that had happened to him. They were all very lucky for that fact.

The first person to approach Severus about Lightning was Draco Malfoy. He came up to Severus right after a potions class with Ron Weasley standing there nervously. The boys had become very strange friends. They still despised each other but could often be seen trading the rudest insults to each other over a chess board.

"Professor Snape." Draco said lightly trying not to give away his anxiety.

"Yes Mr. Malfoy?"

"How is Lightning? He said he would try and visit but it's been three weeks." Draco said worriedly.

"Lightning is fine. The idea of large crowds of students frightens him. Before he went to live in the forest he had guardians who abused him violently. He doesn't trust strangers easily and the idea of being in a large group makes him wary. He has requested that you and the Weasley boys plan out a day to come visit him however." Snape answered.

"He wants us to visit him?"

"Yes he thinks you four would enjoy having what he calls a 'human sleepover'. He wishes to participate in everything humans do with their friends. He feels it would be beneficial. I was going to approach you four with the offer once the headmaster approved it."

"That would wonderful sir!" Draco enthused. "Do you think my father would agree to it?"

"I can ensure that he agrees if you wish to go. It would not be until around Easter break. It would be a couple of months for everything to be prepared and none of you could get into trouble during that time."

Ron who had been pretending not to be listening spoke up at that moment.

"Sir? Do you think if you asked Lightning if he wouldn't mind bringing along another? I mean I know it would take a lot to get even us approved but I don't think she would forgive me if I got to go and she didn't?"

"You are asking about Miss Granger I presume." Severus said.

That friendship was one of the strangest Severus had ever seen. Granger and Weasley were so incompatible and they fought often. Yet they had become close friends and many of the staff were betting that they would be dating by the end of 5th year. The idea of inviting the know-it-all girl did not appeal to Severus but he would have to ask Lightning. This had been the boy's idea and he wanted a totally adult free time to spend with his children friends.

"I will ask Lightning if he would be amenable to inviting a stranger. Now both of you get to your next class. Professor Sprout doesn't approve of lateness."

The boys left while glaring at each other. Personally Severus could see a future where those two boys were dating instead of Weasley and Granger. Not that he would ever say that out loud. Imagine the outrage! A Weasley and Malfoy engaging each other in such a fashion! It was an affront to all purebloods everywhere.

Draco had also made a lot of progress when it came to pureblood fanaticism. Lighting's frank logic and questions had shaken his beliefs and he was seen conversing with intelligent muggleborns about muggle culture. He did not write to his father about his changing beliefs and instead sought out Severus at strange times to discuss his changing world views. It made Severus so happy to see that it was not too late to save Draco from that road. He loved his godson and was overjoyed to know that the boy was beginning to think for himself.

The school year continued and as did the visits with Lightning. When the boys had learned that they would be able to visit Lightning for a sleepover they instantly behaved. The twins pulled no pranks for over a month. It was a miracle. During the first two weeks after winter break Flitwick and Pomona had visited Lightning and fallen in love with his tree home. Severus knew that when you could not find Minerva she was most likely taking a cat nap in the bed Lightning had made for her in his home. He had caught her in her cat form on one Saturday stretching out and being pet by Lightning.

She had instantly moved away and transformed. She refused to admit she enjoyed the boy's ministrations at all. He had smirked at her as she hustled away. It was the first Saturday in Maech when Severus apparated to Lightning's clearing. The first thing he saw was the blood on the ground. There was a large pool of it partially completely right in the middle of the clearing. His stomach turned cold and he shouted for his friend.

"Lightning."

The boy's head popped over the edge and he smiled down on Severus.

"Hello Sevrus. I'm glad you are here. I have a new guest and he says he knows you."

"Who do you have up there?"

"He said his name is Remus Lupin but I call him Moony! I met him a couple of nights ago. The moon was full and he was a giant wolf! It was awesome!" Lightning exclaimed. "Except he kept trying to eat me so I had to hurt him pretty bad. He's been with me ever since healing and talking!"

"Whose blood is this?" Severus yelled up.

"Moony's. I told you I had to hurt him so he wouldn't bite me. Mother told me he would turn me into a wolf if he bit me. Do you want to come up?"

"Of course I do. Lower the basket!"

So the basket was lowered and Severus rode it up. He was not going to enjoy the following conversation at all.


	11. Females are Scary!

**Chapter 11! This one is pretty long so be prepared for a good read. I tried really hard not to make this a super!Harry story so bear with me. I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you thought in a review!**

The last month had passed quickly for Lightning. His mother had stepped up on his training and he had begun practicing things with his wand. The wand hummed with him and he enjoyed the feeling of confidence it gave him. It was on the night of the full moon that he was awoken by a piteous howl. Glade hissed in his ear.

 _"_ _That howl is that of a wolf-man. It is a two legger that is cursed to be wolf when the moon is full. He has no control over his actions and can often hurt those he cares for. The Snake Mother chose you so that you may help those who suffer. You can help him. Do not allow him to bite you, if he does you will be cursed as well."_

 _"_ _How do I help him?"_

 _"_ _I need you to injure him so that he falls unconscious. While you do that I will summon Lyla together you can remove his curse."_

 _"_ _Excellent."_

Lightning had stood and summoned his gloves. He put them on and began running towards the howls. He felt the first glimmer of fear when he saw the wolfman. It was giant and snarling. Waves of aggression and hunger rolled off of the beast. When he saw Lightning he charged. Lighting barely dodged and thus began a game of cat and mouse as Lightning slowly tried to injure the very strong wolf and lead him towards his home. Eventually Lightning decided to throw blasts of pure magic at the beast until it collapsed.

Lightning felt drained but he did not stop. The Snake Mother had chosen him to help those who needed it and the man inside the beast needed his help. He waved his hand and allowed the beast to float behind him. When he reached the clearing he saw his mother and Lyla were waiting for him.

 _"_ _Bind him to the ground so that he doesn't fight the procedure."_ Glade commanded.

Lightning did so and listened to the instructions Lyla gave him. It was an intricate ceremony, one that required the spilling of blood but only because the wolf's skin was too tough for Lyla to pierce. Lightning did not want to further injure the wolfman but he followed Lyla's direction and mixed her venom with the blood while incanting a long spell in Parseltongue.

As he finished the spell he felt a lot of his magic leave him and enter the wolf. Using his magic sight he saw his magic fight with a dark shroud of magic. Eventually his magic prevailed and the black stick mass of magic escaped the wolf through the nose, mouth, ears and eyes. When the mass had left the wolf transformed into a very naked and very wounded man.

Using his remaining strength Lightning had levitated the man into a basket and taken him to the den of resting. He grabbed the potions Poppy had given him and searched for the correct ones. He gave the man a pain potion and a blood replenisher. After that he had collapsed into an exhausted sleep.

Lightning woke with the sunrise. He felt drained and exhausted. His mother sensing his weakness left and returned with food. Lightning in that time managed to sit up and cover the naked man. The man had light brown hair and tan skin. He was terribly thin and had scars all over his body even a few on his face. He looked weary even while asleep as if the man had been through hell. Lightning understood that feeling. Those feelings of complete and utter loneliness, those feelings of having no one. Glade and the other snakes had fixed that but before that. His time with his guardians had been awful.

When Glade returned with food, Lightning ate while studying the man. How would he tell him that he had removed the curse? Should he? Would the man even believe him? He ate his breakfast silently feeling very tired. He would be doing no magic at all today. No matter who required blessings he would be unable to do anything. Lyla agreed. She knew how much magic was required for such a spell. She stood guard outside the den of resting and forbid any visitors to the king claiming him to be sick.

So the den of resting was empty except for Lightning and the unknown man. Lightning did not know much about healing and hoped the man would awaken soon. If the man required special potions he could tell him so. It wasn't until many hours after sunrise when the man stirred.

Lightning, who had been practicing his writing, he was always practicing his writing, was alerted to the man's wakefulness when he groaned. Lightning made his way slowly over to the man.

"Hello. My name is Lightning. Don't worry you didn't hurt anyone last night. I stopped you before you could do any damage."

"Huh?"

"My mother told me that you were a wolf-man and that you might hurt someone if you were let free. She told me you were cursed. So I went out and I hit you enough so that you would be unconscious instead of running around hurting someone."

"How old are you?" The man asked staring at him transfixed.

"I'm eleven."

"Who are your parents?" He asked staring at him.

"My human parents died when I was a baby. Their names were James and Lily. I don't remember them at all." Lightning said trying to be honest.

At his answer the man had gasped and tears filled his eyes. He reached out and grabbed Lightning's hand tightly.

"Is your name Harry Potter?"

"How did you know?" The boy asked. "My scar isn't visible is it?"

"No." The man said with a chuckle. "You look exactly like your father but you have your mother's eyes."

Lightning sat down and studied the man. Severus had told him something very similar. It was obvious the man knew his parents. Did that mean he was trustworthy?

"What's your name?"

"My name is Remus Lupin but when you were a baby you called me 'Uncle Moony'."

Lightning was suddenly hit with another memory. He was laughing and being thrown into the air by a familiar man with glasses. His was just a baby shrieking with joy. When he was caught another man sighed and his father held him while speaking.

"Come on Moony! You have to admit, Prongslet enjoys my amazing rides! He is going to be phenomenal on a broom."

"Lily would kill you if she saw you throwing your baby in the air like that."

"What Lils doesn't know won't hurt her."

The memory faded and Lightning gasped. The man had been friends with his parents! He flashed a dazzling smile at the confused man.

"Are you hungry? Do you need anything? I was afraid I might've hurt you too much last night." Lightning asked.

"Are you hurt?" Moony asked.

"No. You didn't touch me once. I was too quick for you."

Moony gave a sigh of relief and leaned back into the pillows. He studied Lightning intently before requesting some food. Lightning stood on wobbly feet and asked Lyla to get some food for his human guest. If the man was surprised at the Parseltongue he didn't show it. He was looking at Lightning as if he couldn't believe he was there. Lightning was reminded that he was still considered missing by most of the world. If Moony had known him as a baby he must have been worried sick when he disappeared! Lightning sat down and gave the man a tired smile.

"I'm sorry but you didn't have any clothes on you when you transformed back. I don't have enough magic in me right now to make you any. You didn't have a wand on you either."

The man blushed and pulled up the blanket a little more. Slicer came in with a bag that had food and Lightning thanked him profusely. He handed the man an apple from the bag as well as a bowl which he filled with stew.

"I don't have any spoons here. I never figured out how to make those or how to use them." Lightning apologized. "I think Sevrus despairs of my table manners but I don't think snakes have those."

"Sevrus?" The man coughed out.

"Yeah! Sevrus is my best friend. He work at the castle near here called Hogwarts. He makes potions. Sevrus was the first nice human I had ever met."

"Did you call Severus Snape nice?" Moony demanded.

"Yep! He visits me every Saturday. If you are still here you will get to meet him."

"I knew Severus when we went to school together. He was never nice then." Moony said confusedly.

"My father and his group of friends bullied him in school. He was always on the defense and attacked anyone who got too close to him. Everyone except my mother." Lightning said with a sigh. "He is always nice to me though. He'll be nice to you too if I ask him!"

"Harry, where have you been all these years?" Moony asked not even trying to make sense of the Severus Snape aspect.

"I'll tell you if you call me Lightning. Everyone calls me that. When I was living with my aunt and uncle they told me my name was freak. When I ran away my snake mother gave me a new name and I like it a lot."

"Alright Lightning. Can you tell me what happened to you?"

So for the next two hours Lightning regaled his new friend with his life story. He told him about meeting Glade and learning Snake Magic. Making his home and becoming a king. The story of meeting Severus and saving his life three times from a Wyvern. He spoke about meeting with his friend Sevrus every Saturday and spending his first Christmas at the castle. He spoke briefly about his treatment with his aunt and uncle. Lighting did not like to think about those things though.

He told Remus all about his Snake family and the doings of his kingdom. In turn Remus told him about himself and his parents. He got his book full of pictures and had Remus tell him all about the different pictures. The stayed in that room both feeling too tired and weak to leave. A snake brought each meal and anything else Lightning requested. When the sun began to set Moony got pale and scared.

"The moon is rising. Lightning I need you to get me on the ground. I won't be able to hurt you from down there if you stay in the trees."

"Don't be silly Moony. You are still wounded from last night. Just stay right here and watch the moon rise with me."

No matter what Moony said or how much he begged. Lightning would not let him leave. Moony moved to the edge of the room and prepared for the painful transformation. He flinched when the moonlight hit him except the pain never came. He didn't feel like he was on fire and that his skin was tearing him apart. No he felt fine. Moony opened his eyes to the smile of Lightning.

"What happened to me?" He asked breathless.

"My snake mother told me that if I used a lot of magic I could get rid of your curse. It was really hard but I did it! You're free Moony. You'll never be a wolf again."

Moony cried that night for a long time. He cried tears of disbelief and tears of joy. Mingling in between was a feeling of great regret. He couldn't help but wish his friends were there to enjoy the moment with him. He felt light and free but still burdened with feelings of guilt. Lightning was with him the entire time. Eventually they both drifted off.

The next morning Lightning woke up feeling more like himself. He got up and used his magic to conjure some robes for his Uncle Moony. They weren't the nicest but they would cover him. He left the clothes there along with a sloppily written note to tell Moony he would be back. He made himself breakfast and then proceeded to speak with his snakes. Being King was a lot of work and he had barely caught up from his winter break. Once he finished with that he made a meal for Moony and returned to see the man fully dressed and smiling.

Once Moony had eaten Lightning took him on a tour of his home. Moony loved it and enjoyed himself. When they finished they sat down to lunch. Moony started the conversation.

"Do you know any human magic?" He asked.

"No." Lightning said with a shake of his head. "I'm still trying to learn how to read and write. I don't know any maths."

"Well we have the whole day. I could help you. When I was younger I always wanted to be a teacher. I couldn't because of my curse but now I can do whatever I want." Moony said with a wistful smile.

"You would teach me human magic?" Lightning asked solemnly.

"Of course. Bring out that wand into your hand and I'll teach you some basic charms."

The next two hours were spent in a very frustrating fashion. The simplest human charms were ludicrously difficult. Exact movements and precise pronunciations made things confusing for Lightning. He still had difficulty speaking in English. He had finally gotten a feather to float an inch above the table when he heard Severus call for him.

"Sevrus is here!" He said to Remus. "I'm going to go get him, you'll be nice right?"

"Of course I'll be nice." Remus said.

"Good!"

He ran off and yelled down to Severus who was rather worried about the pool of blood. Lightning in his excitement had totally forgotten about the wound he had inflicted on Moony. He saw a strange look in his friend's face. Lightning tried to give an encouraging smile.

"Moony is really nice now Sevrus." Lightning added. "He's safe now too!"

"Safe?" Severus sneered as if that was even possible.

"Safe. Just ask him!" Lightning said pulling his friend over to meet his 'uncle moony'.

"It's true Severus." Lupin said. "I am no longer a werewolf."

"Let me guess. Lightning?" Snape said trying not to act surprised.

"I have no idea how he did it but the curse is gone."

"I have no idea how he does anything honestly. I don't think the rules apply to him." Severus said quietly while sitting. "Lightning can you explain how you cured the incurable?"

Lightning sat down next to Severus and thought hard.

"Well I woke up to the sounds of howling. Mother told me that they were the howls of a wolfman. Apparently they are called werewolves but anyway. She told me the wolfman is a cursed human who turns into a wolf when the moon is full and that they lose control of themselves." Lightning began. "Mother told me that I could help him and that the mother snake chose me so that I could help those who needed it."

Snape nodded and Moony just looked confused. Lightning decided he could tell Moony about the Snake Mother later.

"She told me to get the wolf man into the clearing underneath my home and she would get Lyla who would help me defeat the wolf curse. So I got on my gloves Filius gave me and went out to where the wolfman was howling." Lightning continued the narrative. "I didn't know it was Moony yet. The moment the wolfman saw me he tried to eat me but I'm too quick and I was able to lead the wolfman to the clearing. He was really strong and none of my normal magic had any effect so I just pushed out pure magic at him until he passed out. Then I took the wolfman and laid him down so that Lyla could help me."

"You just blasted pure magic at me?" Moony asked surprised.

"Lupin don't interrupt or we will never finish the first story." Severus cut in.

"Yeah. I mean I didn't know any snake magic that would incapacitate you without killing you in a huge explosion. So I just did that. Anyway Lyla told me that I needed to make Moony bleed a little so she could get some of her healing venom into his system and then I had to cast this spell. It wasn't in any language I know but it felt old and important." Lightning said. "So I followed her instructions and used up a lot of my magic. I almost fainted but my magic went into moony and battled the dark curse that shrouded his core. Then the black shadow of the wolf disappeared and the wolfman became a regular person. I dragged Moony into the den of resting and gave him some potions and cleaned up the cut I gave him. Then I fell asleep cause I was sleepy."

Lightning smiled hoping that that would be a good enough explanation. Severus stared at him before sighing.

"You have no idea what happened do you?"

"Not really." Lightning said honestly.

Moony laughed. Severus chuckled.

"I'm afraid Lupin that young Lightning here never learned to lie." Severus explained. "He left his relatives at the age of four and was raised by snakes. You cannot lie in parseltongue so Lightning never learned."

"So if you can't lie how do you get away with anything?" Moony asked.

"Why would I want to get away with anything? If I do something I want people to know. I am king after all." Lightning answered.

Moony laughed again. Severus continued the conversation.

"I came to visit you today."

"You visit every Saturday." Lightning interrupted.

"Of course I do but today I wanted to talk to you about your human sleep over." Severus continued. "Draco, Fred, George and Ron are able to come in two weeks. Ron however had a request of you."

"What is it?" Lightning asked.

"He wants to know if it would be okay to invite another friend of his. This friend was extremely upset that they didn't get to meet you over Christmas."

"Is Ron's friend nice?"

"She would be more likely to pepper you with questions than to hurt you." Snape said.

"SHE?" Lightning jumped. "A girl. Ron has a friend that's a girl?! I've never talked to a girl before."

Lightning ignored the looks of amusement Moony was throwing him and stared straight at Severus his anxiety clear in his green eyes.

"Are human girls different? Do you have to do anything special so that they don't eat you?"

Severus laughed at him, deeply and for a long time. Moony joined in after a moment and Lightning got offended. He stood up and lifted his chin at the laughing men. When they saw his stance of defiance they laughed even harder. Lightning blushed hard and stomped his feet angrily.

"Females are scary!" Lightning argued when their laughter calmed.

Instead of making them stop the two men broke down again. Lightning stomped out of the den of feasting too frustrated to stand there and be laughed at. He went over and skulked for a few minutes before Severus and Moony came back out having calmed themselves.

"You both are very mean." He said not looking at them.

"Yes we are." Severus agreed. "To answer your questions in the human world boys and girls are different but not so much so that you have to worry about girls eating you. Humans don't eat each other. Hermione Granger is a girl who wants to learn everything she can. I have seen her be very bossy towards Ron before."

"Females are normally in charge." Lightning said with a shiver. "Hermin… I can't saw her name right either Sevrus. She can come if she wants. I'd like to meet a girl. As long as she is willing to play."

"I will extend to her the invitation then."

Lightning nodded and stood. They followed him back to the den of training where he sat down. They followed and they sat in a circle. Moments passed and the snakes began to trickle in. Slicer had an update on the hatchlings. Another wanted to report his findings on the borders, the centaurs were moving. The two adults watched him as he conducted business. They said nothing as he blessed, gave advice, received advice, was given gifts or just spoke with his snakes. It was evening when he finished then he turned to the two humans.

"Thanks for coming Sevrus. Do you mind taking Moony back to the castle with you?"

"What? Why?" Moony demanded.

"I don't know if you are completely healed from my defeat of the wolfman. The castle has people in it who can check for you. Besides if you stay much longer I'm going to have to make you a new bed. Mine is only so big." Lightning said with a smile. "You can visit whenever you want. I just want to make sure you're okay. I don't know much healing magic. Since I don't have fangs most healing snake magic is something I can't do."

Before Moony could object Severus interjected.

"I believe that is a good idea Lightning. I will take Moony back to the castle. The others send their welcome and I shall see you next Saturday."

Lightning led them over to the baskets and lowered them all down one at a time. Then he gave Severus a tight hug stunning the man.

"Bye Sevrus! Bye Moony!"

Lightning let the basket take him up and listened for the characteristic pop of departure. Once they were gone he breathed a sigh of relief. He had never had a person over for so long. He was glad that they were able to leave. Talking to people was hard!


	12. Impossible Things

**Chapter 12! Thanks for the reviews everyone! I am so happy with all of the support you guys have been giving me. Please enjoy!**

When they appeared at the castle Severus turned to the other man.

"You do realize that was Harry Potter right?"

"Of course! I knew the moment I woke up. He looks just like James and he has Lily's eyes." Lupin said. "I thought I was seeing a ghost at first."

"What were you even doing in the forest on a full moon?" He demanded while they began walking to the castle.

"Every year I come to the castle to ask Albus if there is any news on Harry. This year the only time I could get off was this week so I decided I would just lock myself in the shrieking shack like I used to and come to the castle in the morning." Lupin said. "I got out and thankfully went directly into the forest where I met up with Lightning."

Snape couldn't believe the fool thought that would work. He thanked the universe that Lupin hadn't ever got out while they were in school together. Now that Lightning had cured him he never had to fear the man again. They continued up their walk nearing the gates. When Severus opened the door he continued the conversation.

"You probably have questions. As I take you to the infirmary to get you checked over I shall endeavor to answer them."

They were instantly waylaid by Draco, Ron and even Granger.

"Professor!" Draco called. "Did you just get back from the forest? How's Lightning?"

"He is fine. He has however managed once again to do the impossible and I have to take this man to the infirmary." Snape answered.

"What did he do this time, Professor?" Ron asked.

"He cured this man of lycanthropy." Snape answered. "Before you pile me on with question I should tell you the boy agreed to allow Miss Granger to attend his 'human sleep over', If she can gain the permission of her parents then she can attend."

The bushy hair girl's face split into a huge grin. The three first years followed him to the infirmary asking him question when they finally arrived he barked at them to leave or be given detentions. Finally he opened the door and allowed Lupin entrance. He slammed the door behind and groaned. Ever since that blasted day in the summer Snape had felt slightly off, comes with caring for others he supposed.

"Poppy! I've got an old patient for you."

"Severus who gave you the right to barge in here?" Poppy said before seeing Lupin. "Oh Remus. So good to see you."

"Poppy scan him and check him for Lycanthropy."

Poppy bemused by the request merely sat Lupin down and did a complex incantation. Instead of her wand producing a blue light it produced a red one.

"Negative? Well that just isn't possible." She murmured casting the spell again, then once more. "Severus what did you do? His Lycanthropy is gone."

"I didn't do anything but visit Lightning today where I found this squatter. Apparently Lightning has decided to try and tackle every impossible thing in the universe."

"My word." Poppy said. "I do fear what would happen if the boy decided to take up residence within in this castle. I think he might run us into shambles before a year was over."

"Can someone tell me what's going on with Lightning?" Remus demanded.

So Snape did. The entire story as they had been able to piece it together. Severus discovering him in the Forbidden Forest. Meeting with him every Saturday and the boy being strongly against coming to the glowing castle. The boy only coming after Severus was injured by a Wyvern which the boy quickly dispatched. The boy meeting the first humans his age and being 'adopted' by them. The boy having a proclivity for pranks and getting Slytherins and Gryffindors to get along. The boy staying for Christmas and then leaving the moment Christmas dinner was over.

"Do you want to try and bring him back into the human world or just let him come in his own time?" Remus asked. "Because there may be some complications."

"Complications?"

"Well I spent almost three days with Lightning." Remus said. "During that time I offered to teach him some first year spells. Since the boy's language skills are so poor he is having a difficult time. He may be powerful but in a human setting he would be very lacking."

"What do you suggest?"

"Well. Continue as you have been doing, visit him. I will do the same except when I come I will come to teach. If I can teach Peter Pettigrew to pass Transfiguration then I can catch Lightning up with his peers. Then by next year he should be able to come to the school."

"You forget. He is afraid of large crowds."

"Yes he is, so was I, but when you want to learn you are willing to go past your own comfort zone. Once I catch him up with his peers I'll tell him that I can't teach him anymore and that he would have to go to school to learn everything properly." Remus said. "I could tell he wants to be there but the thing holding him back is all of the snakes he cares so much about."

"That is correct there is no way Lightning would willingly leave his snakes for too long." Severus said. "You seem to have a solution for this as well."

"Have him relocate. It would be impossible to convince him to move into the castle since the snakes would follow him and the castle would be overrun." Remus said. "Have him relocate so that his home in the trees is walking distance from the castle. The snakes could have the same set up as before it might take some reworking but he could make sure his snakes don't go near the castle unless they need him during classes."

"That could work Lupin." Snape mused.

"Well I had to have special requirements because of my condition. The teachers could make similar arrangements for Lightning and he would be able to acclimate. He would get sorted since we would tell him that it is a human rite of passage. Then once he found a sense of solidarity with his housemates he would spend less time outside and more time inside." Remus said. "He will never abandon his snakes but Lightning is smart he can learn to budget his time between protecting his kingdom and becoming human as well."

"You seem to have thought a lot about this." Severus said.

"Lightning is my best friend's son. When I saw his face and realized who I was looking at I felt happy and light for the first time in a long time. James would've loved what his son has become, a wild man who makes his own rules but he would've wanted Lightning to have a human understanding of the world." Remus said. "If I can make that happen by traveling to the center of the forbidden forest twice a week to teach Lightning math then I will."

Severus nodded and before he could speak Albus walked in. The man's eyes were twinkling like someone had stuffed candles into them. He looked over at Remus who was still seated on a bed like an invalid.

"Poppy has been ranting for the past ten minutes about Lightning doing the impossible once more. I believe this has something to do with you my boy?"

So the story was told again, and again, and once more when doctors from St. Mungo's arrived. That was a little tricky how to explain the boy? They protected Lightning by explaining that there was a muggleborn boy living in the forest whom the staff had just discovered. When the reporters arrived for they surely did they warned that the boy in question was living with hundreds of venomous snakes and he himself was very powerful if he felt threatened he could remove the threat. Reporters agreed to avoid printing information about Lightning but merely about the cure he was able to provide. When asked for a photo Severus produced a copy of one he had taken of his friend at Christmas. It was a good photo with his hair looking human and in his green robes, the boy is holding Lyla in the photo and hissing at her.

The next day the news flooding the world. Everyone mentioned in the story were flooded with owls asking for help. Even Lightning although Severus didn't know this. He did not even think of his friend while he battled howlers pleading for help and hundreds of owls looking for a place to land and deliver their load. There was just one question everyone wanted to know. Could it be done again?


	13. Amy Florence, Age 5

**Chapter 13! 13 is my favorite number so I can tell this is going to be a good chapter. Review and tell me what you thought!**

Lightning had never seen so many owls before. He saw them occasionally flying overhead but only once before had they landed to meet him. There were dozens of them and Lightning at first didn't know what to do. Severus had told him that Owls delivered mail and he could see that many of the owls had parchment attatched to their legs. Slowly one by one he took a letter and placed it down. It took most of the day because Owls kept appearing. Eventually he was alone with the snakes.

Lightning had been practicing his reading and writing. He had only had a few lessons with Draco but his friend had sent a few books with Severus and he was practicing. Reading was difficult and his writing was nearly impossible to read. Lightning wasn't bothered thought it had taken years of hard work to master the snake magic so mastering the human tongue should be just as much work. Glade pushed him to begin reading the letters. He picked up a pink one right off the top.

 _Dear Snake boy,_

 _I hope that is your name but mommy didn't know what it was. My mommy cried when she read the paper today. You made the mr. lupin all better. I think she wants you to make me better too. I'm writing you to ask you to visit me in surrey and make me not be a werewolf anymore. I wrote my address on the envelope so you would know where I am. I will give you all my dolls if you come and make me better._

 _-Amy Florence, Age 5_

Lightning put that letter back into the envelope it came in picked up the next letter. This one was in a blue envelope.

 _Snake Speaker,_

 _The news did not give out your information, not even your name. This was most likely for your protection. I am writing to you however to ask for your help. My name is Andrew Gleeson and I have been a werewolf for 45 years. I desire nothing more than to be given a chance at freedom and life. I will give anything I own to be free of this curse. Please some to my home and cure me. You are my only hope._

 _-Andrew Gleeson_

Lightning placed that one back in the envelope and looked at the address it was a mixture of words and numbers that he didn't understand. Lightning looked at the large pile of letters and knew this was why he had been chosen. To help. Lightning stood and waved his hand. His motion produced a loud noise that would call all snakes to his home for a council. He knew they would all be there within an hour so he picked up the pile of letters and carried it down onto the ground.

He stood on the tallest rock and watched as the snakes slithered in. They said nothing as they circled him merely finding a place to curl up. Soon there were hundreds of snakes forming a complete circle around him. Lightning began speaking loudly and confidently.

 _"_ _My honored subjects! I have an issue I would like to bring your attention too. Please open your minds and consider the problem."_ Lightning began. _"I have been chosen by the Snake Mother to bring about great change and I do not wish to delay. I recently discovered that with the help of Lyla I can break a powerful curse that haunts the two leggers! This curse affects their young and their ancients alike. It is painful and dangerous it causes much sorrow. I feel the snake mother gave me power so that I may remove this curse from the world. Below me are a pile of letters from two leggers who desire nothing more than to be free of their curse."_

Lightning motioned towards the pile and many snakes snuck out their tongues to sniff it. When no questions came Lightning continued.

 _"_ _There are some problems. The Letters have an address on them that I can somehow use to locate the afflicted but I do not understand this two legger system. I also feel that I am not strong enough to remove the curses effectively. When I broke it the first time I used so much magic I was unable to move for a day afterwards. I desire to help the two leggers as the mother snake would wish. What say you?"_

The snakes were silent at first. Then one snake slithered forward to speak. It was a magical Boomslang snake. It lifted its head up and faced Lightning.

 _"_ _King Lightning, I find that your desire is a correct one. The Snake Mother abhors curses that harm the hatchlings. I am familiar with the human address system as I lived among the two leggers for much of my youth. If you read the address to me I can help you travel there."_ The Boomslang whose name was Harris offered. _"My two legger with whom I bonded before I came to you traveled much and I am familiar with many places on this island. If you give me a place I can share the place with you in your mind and you will be able to pop there."_

Lightning nodded his thanks to Harris who proceeded to curl up nest to the pile of letters. The next snake to come was a Runespore by the name of Gore. Runespores were regenerative snakes and Lightning hoped she would have a solution for him.

 _"_ _King Lightning. There is a technique I can teach you that will allow you to use the magic of the cursed to break it. It would use mostly their magic to break the curse only using yours to supplement if they are not strong enough to do so. It would take some time to learn but I feel the Snake Mother would aid in your quest in this."_ Gore offered.

Lightning nodded towards Gore who took that as a sign to curl up next to Harris. The next snake to come was Lyla, her children and Slicer. Lyla spoke for them all.

 _"_ _Master Lightning, to break this curse you require just a bit of our venom. We shall come with you on your journey and provide the need. My children desire to aid in your quest and they will donate their venom to the two leggers who require it. Among us there is enough to cure 200 two leggers before we need time to create more."_ Lyla said.

Lightning smiled at the 9 snakes and they went near the pile of letters to wait. When none else came forward Lightning spoke once more.

 _"_ _I am humbled at your presence my snakes. I thank you for coming and helping me discover how to help the two leggers. Once I have learned the technique Gore the Runespoor can teach me I will journey throughout this island curing the two leggers."_ Lightning said. _"I shall be gone for some time as there are many afflicted. My home shall be open to you while I am gone and I hope you would defend it as your own territory. I shall design a stone that shall be placed in the den of rest. If there is a need of me to return you merely speak your need into the stone and I shall hear and come as soon as I am able. You may return to your homes now, Thank You once more."_

The snakes except for the ones who were going to stay and help Lightning began to slither away to their own nests. Lightning sat down on the grass warmed by the late afternoon sun and spoke with Gore. She began his lessons immediately understanding the importance of the matter.

It took Lightning four days of nonstop work to do this magic. He practiced with all the living things of the forest. It was the most difficult thing he had ever tried to learn. It relied on his magic sight. Gore described it as manipulating pure magic and Lightning found it at first to be impossible. Soon though he could take and use the magic in living things. When he was finally able to do the magic Gore warned him.

 _"_ _You must only use this power to break the curse. If you use it for your own gain you shall lose your magic and the Snake Mother shall curse you. To steal another's magic is reprehensible."_

 _"_ _I understand Gore."_

During his time of practice Harris had studied the addresses on the letters and determined a path of travel for the party. The highly intelligent and cultured snake had Lightning recreate a map of Britain. Harris had seen the map a few times and shared the image with him and Lightning had used his magic to transfigure a map. Then Harris spent the next days making dots on the map that Lightning would follow.

The other snakes hunted for Lightning and created a pile of game meat the boy could use during his travels. Glade helped him create the stone and on the fifth day Lightning was ready to travel. His first destination being the young child who had begged for his help. Amy. Lightning picked up a bag he filled with food and allowed the snakes to curl around him. He wrote out a note for Severus to let him know that he would be gone for some time, his explanation being that the Snake Mother needed him.

On the morning of the fifth day Lightning bid his mother goodbye and he popped away. He knew the distances to his destinations and fractioned them out with the help of Harris. In the blink of an eye he was gone, then he was in another secludef park, then in front of a picket white fenced house.

 _"_ _Make yourself invisible!"_ Harris scolded.

Lightning bit back a curse in parseltongue while waving his hand to make himself invisible. The girl lived at 221 and he was in front of the house numbered 233. Harris instructed him to walk down the street until he was in front of the house with the correct number. Eventually he came up to a house.

The house without his magic sight looked like a normal human residence, it was a light yellow with brown accents. It looked so much like the home Sir and Ma'am lived in Lightning wondered if every house looked the same. He looked around and made himself visible. Lightning was still wearing his animal pelts finding them easier to move in. He opened up the fence gate and walked up to the home while removing the light pink letter Amy had written him.

 _"_ _Knock on the door and wait for them to answer it."_ Harris explained.

Lightning walked up to the wooden door and raised his left hand. He knocked on it three times loudly. Lightning felt frightened the memories from when he was so small were rising up. He tried to look confident when a high pitched voice called out to him

"Coming!"

Lightning's heartbeat was going wild and he felt dizzy. When the door opened to reveal a little girl in a bright pink dress Lightning sigh in relief. He opened his mouth but she beat him to the punch.

"Are you the snake boy!?" She demanded. "Did you get my letter?"

"I got your letter Amy. Can I come in?" Lightning said this while showing her the pink letter he had received from her five days before.

"Okay! My mommy is in the kitchen right now! She'll want to meet you!"

The little girl took his hand and dragged him inside. Lightning tried to remain calm he knew this girl meant no harm. The home looked much different than Sir's had. This one gave off a feeling of warmth and comfort. Lightning allowed himself to ease. She dragged him into the kitchen shouting for her mother.

"Mommy! The snake boy from the paper is here! He got my letter! He's come to help me!"

A woman with curly brown hair and long slender fingers turned and widened her eyes at Lightning. Lightning tried to speak then but Amy felt she could do all the talking.

"He looks just like he did in the paper and he's got all these snakes with him and he even had my letter!" Amy said.

"Hello there." The woman said. "My name is Hayley. Please sit down and tell me about this cure."

Lightning sat down awkwardly in the chair. His attire making him stick out like a sore thumb. He shifted his weight before speaking.

"My name is Lightning. Amy sent me a letter asking for help with her curse. I would like to try if that is okay?" He asked.

"What are you going to do?" Hayley asked while quieting her daughter.

"One of my snakes, the blue ones that are curled around me will bite her with a healing venom. It won't hurt her I promise it is just a little sting and then I will use her magic and mine to cast out the curse. I promise Amy will be safe, she might be very tired after." Lightning said desperately.

Before the mother could say no Amy walked over and pointed to one of the blue snakes, Severus to be exact.

"I want that one to bite me." She demanded.

Lightning lifted his hand and let Severus curl around it. Severus had deep dark eyes and he turned to face the little girl.

"This is Sevrus. He is a very nice snake are you sure you are ready?"

"Mommy." Amy said. "I want to try Sevrus is a nice snake!"

Hayley seemed to consider deeply. Lightning let her. He did not know what made her so nervous but he did not wish to push her. Finally she nodded. She had Amy sit down and Severus slithered onto her hissing the whole time. Lightning opened up his magic sight and prepared himself. He hissed out to Severus.

 _"_ _I am ready when you are Severus. Please bite her gently she is just a hatchling barely out of the egg."_

If snakes could roll their eyes Severus would've instead he bobbed his head and moved his mouth towards the girls arm. He opened his mouth and chomped down on the girl. She gasped and the mother tightened her grip on the table. Lightning began the incantation. It was in on language he knew and he did not know how to write it down. As he finished he did not let himself rest but held back his magic and began to use Amy's own to break the curse. She was not yet a powerful magic user but her contribution meant that Lightning only had to use a little of his instead of all. It was much easier than it had been the first time.

He watched once more as the shroud of dark magic fought against the spell and the venom until it fled in fear. It leaked out of Amy from her eyes, nose, mouth and ears. After ten minutes the ritual was done and Lightning let the magic go. He looked up at the mother and in a tired voice said.

"It is done. Amy is free."

The woman's wand was out within moments and she was waving it at her daughter. Lightning did not know what she was doing but he did not care. The woman cried much like Moony had when the tip of the wand glowed red.

Amy looked tired and drawn but she smiled brightly at Lightning. She stood up and gave him a hug.

"I'm very tired Lightning but before you leave I want to give you my favorite doll I promised I would!"

"I've never had a doll before." Lightning said. "What are they?"

So Amy and Hayley led him up the stairs of their home and into a room that was painted a bright pink. All around the room were things in the shapes of humans. Hayley told him that Dolls were toys that humans played with. Lightning smiled as Amy picked out one that had bright red hair and was wearing a green dress.

"This is Princess Ariel! She is my most favoritest doll. Thank you for making me all better. I want you to have Ariel you will take care of her right!?"

"Thank you Amy. I will take care of Ariel." Lightning said gently taking the doll as if it was the most precious thing he had ever been given. "I must go now. If you wish to write me another letter send it to me in my home in the forbidden forest. That is near a big castle called Hogwarts. I've lived there my whole life and if you ever come to the castle you can try and visit me. I live in the very middle of the forest."

"Bye Lightning!" Amy said.

"Thank you so much." Hayley said.

Lightning smiled and while still clutching the doll popped away. A few more jumps later Lightning was on another street. He made himself invisible and walked towards the home of Kyle Georges a man who had been cursed for years. He felt tired and knew that he would only be able to heal a few people a day unless he wanted to faint. He walked up to the correctly numbered house and knocked.

The door opened to reveal a man with gray hair and stunning blue eyes. The man was covered in scars just like Moony had been. The man looked down on him with a quizzical look.

"It's not Halloween is it?"

"What's Halloween?" Lightning asked. "My name is Lightning you sent me a letter about your curse."


	14. Come See The World

**Hey guys! So sorry about those of you who had to read that weird formatted chapter. I was able to fix the problem up real quick. I hope you enjoy this chapter that is now understandable.**

The next few days were a blur to Lightning. He visited about four people a day. Each one was an experience. Michi Blackwood was a woman with the darkest skin he had ever seen. Once he was inside the woman's home and had broken her curse he had to ask.

"What did you do to your skin?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've never seen skin as dark as yours. It's pretty."

"Thank you." Michi said in a dubious tone. "I was born with it. Everyone had different skin tones."

Michi then had to explain how that happened and why although there was a difference it wasn't all that important. Lightning understood because snakes all have different colored scales but they are all still snakes. It was a simple concept to learn.

The next new idea he was introduced to was art. Jess Keifer, a 19 year old college student, had been cursed only 3 years ago. He had bits of metal in his ears and nose and his skin had colored pictures in it. His hair was also a bright purple, all in all he was the most interesting person Lightning had ever seen. When questioned about his strange but wonderful appearance Jess had given this answer.

"I am an artist and my body is a canvas that I use to create art."

"What is art?"

That question had received the most horrifying look one being could give another. He spent five hours with Jess and his friends looking at images and listening to music, something Lightning quite liked. He then broke Jess' curse and the man had given him a gift. His own piece of art! Lightning didn't know what the picture was but Jess had called it abstract. He had shrunk it and placed it in his bag thankful to have something so human.

A few days later he popped in front of a rundown house. He did not fear that and he knocked politely. It was opened to reveal and young woman, in her 20's or 30's. She looked gaunt and sick. When she saw who it was she opened her door wide and nearly pulled Lightning inside. Lightning knew that the curse affected everyone negatively but this woman was totally alone making her burden larger than most. He broke her curse and then she had offered him something.

"You have quite a head of hair. Would you like me to cut it?"

"Cut it?"

"Surely you noticed some people have different lengths of hair right?"

"Yes."

"Well they have another human cut it into the style they like."

"Can you make sure I still have this hair to cover my forehead?" Lightning said pointing to his fringe.

"Of course. Sit down and I'll cut it for you real quick." The woman, Ori Meyer, said pushing him into a chair. "Now since you are kind of a animal boy I'm think something wild but manageable. I'm going to cut it quite short so that it won't get caught on branches and things."

"That's a great idea!" Lightning said.

So the woman cut his hair, most of it was on the floor when it was all over. His hair was short and cut well. It stuck up everywhere and looked like he had just been through a storm. Not that he minded he liked the way it looked and he looked just like his dad now! He had thanked Ori very seriously before popping away not knowing that a simple haircut was nothing compared to the gift of freedom.

Around three weeks into his journey someone had given him a magical camera that never ran out of film. They had explained that since he was traveling the country he should take as many pictures as possible. He began taking pictures of each person he met together. He had hundreds of them but he loved each one. Another person by the name of Katherine Reid suggested that the people in the picture write down their name and the date so that Lightning would never forget them.

Lightning learned about cars from a struggling mechanic by the name of George Lyon. The man had been surprised that Lightning had never seen one and had taken Lightning into his shop to see how they worked and had even taken him on a joyride. Lightning had never been more terrified.

Some people could only give him a meal in thanks for his service but Lightning loved those all the same. One man named Horace taught him how to use his utensils and the proper etiquette for meals. He found that Mac and Cheese was very delicious and often requested it. One of the most frustrating days was when Lightning met a French person.

Her name was Audré and she had answered her door with a French greeting on her lips. She had taken the time in broken English to explain that there were hundreds of human languages. Lightning had felt like crying, English was hard enough. Audré who had understood the difficulties of learning a new language had given him an easy to read dictionary. Which was something Lightning had started reading each night.

One of the most confusing days was when a well off person had taken him shopping. Camille Stepansen had seen his attire and decided that once her husband was cured she was going to take Lightning to a store and buy him real clothing. Lightning learned the power of the word "no" on that trip as well. He had left the woman with a wardrobe of five shirts, five pairs of jeans and the needed underclothes. She had also bought him a thick, waterproof muggle jacket that Lightning thought was the most glorious creation in the world. She had also bought him a pair of shoes something he found to be useful but uncomfortable.

Camille had demanded that he wear those things from now on and he had agreed. With the hair cut and very human clothing he hardly recognized himself anymore. He found that now that he looked like a human it was much easier to get into people's homes. Apparently the wild man look made them nervous.

Blair Archer introduced Lightning to television and radio. Two things Lightning found to be very useful. Another person explained to him what the newspaper was and how everyone had found out about his curing of Moony. Another person took the time to explain what a bank was and that magical people had their very own bank. This person, a woman who had wanted to be an accountant but couldn't because of her curse even took him to the wizard bank.

"This is Gringotts it is run by Goblins. They are magical creatures that look a little different. Don't stare." Rose had explained. "Now do you want to find out if you have a vault?"

"I think I might have one. Do you promise not to tell anyone if I do or not?"

"I swear on my honor and my magic I will tell no one what I learn at the bank today." She promised.

Lightning felt the magic shift as the oath took hold and gave her a large smile before walking up to the very strange goblin.

"Business?" He demanded.

"We are here to see if he has any vaults." Rose said.

"Name? Age?" The goblin said staring Lightning down.

"Harry Potter, 11." He had answered back quietly.

Rose had gasped in surprise but was able to avoid getting any other person's attention.

"Do you have your vault key?"

"No." Lightning answered.

"Very well. Griphook will take you to an office room and have you tested."

They had spent much of the day at the bank. Apparently Lightning had a lot of vaults but he could only access one. The rest would become open to him when he turned 17 and became Lord Potter. Rose had gotten him a lot of books explaining the world of finance and Lordship.

Months passed in this way. As Lightning got more practice in breaking the curse he learned that the farther from the full moon the easier it is to break the curse. For that reason he avoided breaking the curse on the full moon since it would use a lot of his own magic. When Lightning's bag became full he would send it back to his home using one of the snakes with him as a messenger. Severus enjoyed those trips the most since he could get away from the crowds for a moment.

When the summer came again Harry had healed thousands and had a picture for everyone. He had taken to placing them in a book do that he wouldn't lose them. Harry had been walking along in London trying to get to the next address when he saw a man that looked exactly like Draco. The man had long blonde hair the same color and the same facial structure. Lightning at this point had learned to make himself visible but not his snakes so that he could walk around without people staring at him strangely.

He picked up his speed so that he was right next to the imposing man walking down the road. The man even had a cane. He took to studying the man and looked at his large core. His was about the same size as Lightning's. The man noticed the staring and Lightning's strange attire.

"What are you staring at boy?" He demanded.

"You." Lightning said answering the question. "You look like a friend of mine and I thought you might be his father."

"Who is this friend?"

"Draco Malfoy. I met him at the school right before Christmas. He was really nice."

"Who are you?" The man asked more intrigued by the minute.

"My name is Lightning."

"This wouldn't be the same Lightning who is curing Werewolves all across the country?" The man asked.

"Yes that's me." Lightning said. "Are you Draco's dad?"

"I am." The man admitted before sticking his hand out for a handshake. "My name is Lucius Malfoy."

Lightning who had since learned the art of a good handshake returned the motion. They continued walking after that.

"Is Draco okay? I haven't seen him since Christmas day." Lightning asked.

"He is well. In fact he is currently at home if you wish to come with me to see him." Lucius offered.

"I'd like that very much but I have one more person to see today. I can come by in the evening if you tell me where you live." Lightning said with a smile.

Lucius then pulled something from his pocket and handed it to Lightning.

"This is a portkey when you are ready to come just say the word 'Home' while touching it. It will transport you there." Lucius said.

"Okay! I'll see you soon!" Lightning then tapped the top of his head and let himself turn completely invisible.

He went to the Malfoy Family Home that evening and was greeted with a hug by Draco who had spent the entire afternoon in the waiting room. Apparently he was waiting for Lightning to arrive.

"LIGHTNING! I've missed you!" Draco said.

"I missed you too, Draco."

"Come on let me introduce you to my mother!"

Draco had then dragged him through the large manor introducing him to his mother and his father although he had already met the father. They treated him to dinner where Draco demanded Lightning show him his magic.

"What do you want me to show you Draco?"

"Hmmmm. Weasley told me you can make fire from your hand." He said.

"I can." Lightning said lifting his hand and concentrating.

The fire burst forth right from his hand causing massive shock to go through Draco's parents. They began to pepper him with questions.

"So. I must admit Lightning you like quite a bit like someone I knew long ago." Lucius began.

"Maybe you knew my Dad. Sevrus says I look just like my dad."

"Who is your father? I may have known him in school?"

"My dad's name was James Potter. And my mom's name was Lily Evans Potter." Lightning said. "They died when I was really small only about a year old though."

Draco and rather the entire Malfoy family began coughing in surprise. Lightning gave them strange looks. Severus hadn't been that bothered when he found out, neither had Moony. Rose had been surprised but she had been okay with it.

"Are you okay Draco?" Lightning asked.

"You're Harry Potter?" Draco asked in a strained voice.

"I was born with that name yes." Lightning said. "That's why Sevrus is so insistent I begin to use it. I don't really care for it though. It doesn't translate well into Parseltongue."

"What's your name in Parseltongue?" Draco asked clearly recalling the conversation before the last Christmas.

"Furry Dishmaker." Lightning grumbled. "Lightning is much better."

And Draco laughed. After dinner Lightning had left but not before asking the Malfoy family to call him only Lightning and not tell anyone that his name used to be Harry Potter.

"Apparently I'm famous and there are humans who want me dead." Lightning said.

He spent the entire summer doing what he had done in the spring. He even found an entire village of Werewolves. He had had to spend an entire week in the village, his snakes ran out of venom about halfway through the breaking process and he had been invited to stay. They had been so kind to Lightning reminding him painfully of Severus and his snake family. He missed them.

From that first village one of the cured had given him directions to the next werewolf village. There were four main werewolf villages in the country. Lightning had found the smallest and he had been given the numbers. He knew the next trips to the last three villages would take a long time since his snakes needed to make their venom.

So Lightning decided to head home. For at least a few days. His snakes could rest and Lightning could give Severus a hug and tell him all about what he had learnt.


	15. Power of the Press

**WOW! I cannot believe the amount of response I've gotten form this story. It has over 20,000 hits! That is insane! I hope you've enjoyed reading this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I apologize that my updates have been slower than I would like. Review and tell me what you think!**

It had been a week since Severus had learned that Lightning could cure Lycanthropy. The teachers had worked hard trying to determine the best system of using this knowledge. There were so many who deserved to be free of the curse but Lightning could only cure them so quickly. It had been a lengthy discussion.

"There are about 800 werewolves in Britain, not to mention the amount worldwide. When Lightning cured me he was out of it for an entire day. This project will take years of work and that is if we have Lightning do nothing but break the curse." Lupin said.

"We could have the afflicted come one at a time to Hogwarts and have Lightning heal them." Albus suggested.

"What if he has to do it during the full moon?" Lupin said. "That would be very dangerous."

"I had not considered that." Albus said.

They had eventually hammered out a plan among themselves and Severus was to go and present the plan to the boy. They would do nothing without Lightning's consent but the plan they worked out would hopefully help the boy get used to people without tying him down to doing nothing but curing people. When he appeared in the clearing something felt different. He called out to Lightning but no one answered. The boy had always answered before. He called out again but this time he was answered with hissing. He looked up and saw the yellow boa, Glade looking at him. The snake, he knew was intelligent enough, hissed at him again.

"Do you want me to come up there?" He asked.

The snake nodded its head yes. So Snape apparated up to the platform.

"Where do you want me to go?" He asked.

The snake hissed and began slithering towards the resting hut. Severus followed and came into the bedroom to see a new rock sitting there and a note next to it. He recognized Lightning's hideous scrawl and picked it up. It was written in large squiggly letters and was difficult to read. Eventually he was able to decipher its message.

 _Severus._

 _I am not home right now. I've gone traveling a long way and will be gone for long time. The Snake Mother needs me to do something important. I will come home when I am done._

 _-Lightning_

Severus clutched the paper tightly within his fingers. He looked down at the yellow snake and spoke his mind.

"Is this serious?"

The snake nodded and Snape cursed. Why had the boy decided to just leave? What could be so important that he would leave his home? All this time Lightning had cited the reason he couldn't come to Hogwarts was because of his snakes. Now he was just leaving for an undisclosed amount of time on some kind of quest. It was utterly Gryffindor!

Snape quickly apparated back to the castle and stormed quickly up to the headmaster's office. He spit out the password and ran up the stairs. He opened the door still feeling furious that his friend had left with only a note to explain.

"Lightning is gone." He said to Albus.

"What do you mean gone? I thought he did not wish to leave his snakes?"

"I do not know where he went he left only a note explaining that the Snake Mother had a mission for him that he must complete. He doesn't know when he will return."

"That is most curious may I see the note?"

Severus thrust out the note to Albus who scrunched up his eyes trying to discern the script. It was morning and as Albus was reading the note an owl swopped in with a copy of the daily prophet. The title screamed at Snape.

 **FOUR PEOPLE CURED OF LYCANTHROPY!**

 **By: Rita Skeeter.**

A young boy appearing randomly throughout Britain going by the name of Lightning has cured four more people of the previously thought incurable!

Snape stopped reading at that point and groaned.

"Albus read the paper." He said in a long suffering voice.

Albus grabbed the paper and his eyes widened as he took in the image of a young girl around five waving at the camera with a bright smile on her face.

"Oh my. I suppose this is what Lightning meant by 'something important' then." Albus murmured. "Just how did he know where to find these people?"

"Albus we were getting letters, thousands of them, this week. Surely some of them would've gotten to him as well. The boy has been learning to read and probably read all of the pleadings for help and decided to go cure the entire world." Severus said.

"I do believe you are correct." Albus said. "I think all our planning this week is for nothing then. Instead of bringing the afflicted to Lightning he is bringing the cure to them."

"Why did he just leave? Certainly he would want some help." Severus said.

"I believe it did not occur to him to ask for human help. He may have very well asked his snakes to help him."

"Albus Lightning hasn't been in the human world like this since he ran away 7 years ago! What if he gets hurt or walks into a trap?"

"I do not know. I suppose we just have to trust Lightning to make right choices."

"How will he know what the right choice is? He doesn't know anything about the human world?"

At this point Snape was pacing and running his hands through his hair all but acting like an over concerned parent. It took over an hour for Severus to calm completely.

"Severus just place a charm on Lightning's home that will let you know when he returns and write a note for him requesting he come visit you in the castle when he returns. I will let Remus and the children know that their slumber party has been delayed. Now go brew something you look like an over-worried hen."

Snape glared but knew better than to deny it. He spent the rest of his Saturday casting the charm on Lightning's home, writing the note and pacing in his quarters imaging all the things that could and would go wrong.

The next few months were spent with Severus completely on edge. Every day the Prophet would cover the newest people to be cured. Every day five or six people would come forward and share their story. Lightning never stayed very long at one place. People were never very detailed about anything but the boy's description and the ceremony that cured them. It seemed they had all agreed to keep some things secret.

The first school year ended and Lightning had not yet returned. The children asked about him weekly but they had all the same information Severus did. Severus still apparated to the clearing every Saturday but nothing ever changed. The world was abuzz with news about the cure.

Worldwide there were about 30,000 werewolves. There were converging upon Britain in swarms. As the months passed the number of cures Lightning completed increased. It seems does practice make perfect. By June he was curing 15-20 people a day. The only days he didn't cure were on the days of the full moon. One of the cured asked him why and the explanation the paper gave was simple.

"The curse is strongest on the full moon and it the most difficult to fight. I merely wait a day and break the curse when it is not so strong."

Severus' worry never lessened. He was irritable before but now he was completely and utterly on edge. The papers could never get pictures of Lightning and were offering quite a bit of gold for them. The boy hid well though only appearing when he was going to heal. By the end of the month of June Lightning had healed about one thousand people.

The numbers were climbing and Severus had taken to keeping a record of each person cured. He would take their picture from the Daily Prophet and write their names and location in a journal.

It was on the morning of August 9th that Snape knew that Lightning would be returning soon. The paper came in as usual and the front page was filled with a picture of hundreds.

 **Lightning cures Entire Werewolf Town!**

Severus thought about it. In some more rural parts of Britain Werewolves had created their own towns and cities to avoid prejudice. Their locations were closely guarded and only those invited could enter. The precautions were created to protect those not infected as well as prevent mass murders of Werewolves. Apparently Lightning had entered one and cured everyone within.

Severus looked back into the paper and began reading deeply.

 _The last few days have been rather quiet on the Werewolf cure front. However that is only because Lightning has been rather busy. Our favorite boy has been curing the 346 residents of this all werewolf town. Your favorite author was able to catch Lightning before he disappeared and he agreed to an interview with your truly. Apparently the boy didn't even know we were looking to talk._

 _R: Thank you for agreeing to meet with me Lightning._

 _L: It's okay. I didn't know people were so interested in talking to me._

 _R: Of course we are silly! You are a real hero, you've cured over a thousand people! Tell me all about yourself._

 _L: Well my name is Lightning, I grew up in the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts. I've lived there since I was four years old._

 _R: Oh my! However did you get there? At such a young age you must have been terrified._

 _L: Well I apparated away. My human guardians were very cruel and I got so scared of them that my magic took me away one day. I arrived in the forest and spent a week alone scared of everything before I met Glade._

 _R: Who is Glade?_

 _L: Well Glade is a beautiful yellow boa snake who saved me. I call her my mother because she raised me in the forest and taught me everything I needed to know. Mother is back at home she wanted to stay home and watch over the forest while I went out and helped people._

 _R: That is so very sweet. So how did you live in the forest?_

 _L: Well mother knew I could do magic. She told me that I would be very powerful one day and that she would teach me to be a good wizard. She taught me all kinds of wandless magic. As I grew I learned to create my own home. I made a home among the trees so I would be safe from the larger creatures in the forest. I made a lot of snake friends who brought me game food and I created my own garden._

 _R: That is very enterprising of you. So do you live alone with only your snakes?_

 _L: Yes. I was alone for a long time until one day I met someone! He was really deep in the forest and I was following him because I hadn't seen another human up close in a very long time. There was a Wyvern in the forest that was out hunting and one night the Wyvern attacked this new person. I fought off the Wyvern and saved the human. A couple of days later he showed up at my house and introduced himself._

 _R: Who was this person?_

 _L: He told me his name was Severus Snape and he was my first human friend._

Snape hoped that Lightning had actually learned to pronounce his name and that this wasn't Rita Skeeter correcting the boy.

 _R: Severus Snape the Potions Master at Hogwarts?_

 _L: Yeah! He was really nice and he was the first wizard I had ever met. I helped him out of the forest and he started visiting me every Saturday. He told me all about the wizarding world and I told him all about my home. He kept inviting me to come to Hogwarts but I didn't want to go to school, I was happy with my snakes._

 _R: Did you ever go to the castle?_

 _L: Yeah I spent my very first Christmas there with Severus and all the other professors! I even met the first wizards my age. I made friends with Ron, Fred and George Weasley and Draco Malfoy. They were at the castle when I visited and they taught me how to fly on a broom, play chess and all these other things. Draco even taught me how to read!_

 _R: You didn't know how to read until last Christmas?_

 _L: My mother is a snake she didn't know how to read so she couldn't teach me. I've been practicing though and I'm getting better._

 _R: Well practice makes perfect dear. How did you discover that you could cure werewolves?_

 _L: I was sleeping one night when I was woken up by this huge howl! My mother told me that it was a werewolf and then she told me what a werewolf was and that he could hurt people if I didn't help him. I love helping people and so mother told me to bring the werewolf to the clearing near my home and Lyla would help me get rid of the curse._

 _R: Who is Lyla?_

 _L: This beautiful blue snake curled around my neck is Lyla. She is an Asclepius snake. Her species was almost hunted into extinction hundreds of years ago by wizards looking for a way to immortality. Lyla's venom when mixed with a Parselmagic spell can break the curse._

 _R: You have quite a few blue serpents with you now. Can you introduce me to the family?_

 _L: This is Lyla, her mate Slicer and their children; Severus, Lily, Padfoot, Moon, Frieda, Jordyn, and Coral. They were hatched on Christmas._

 _R: They are very handsome snakes. Did you name them?_

 _L: No, this species of snake is born with their names. I think since I spent so much time with them while they were in their eggs that I might've influenced what their names were but they picked their own names._

 _R: So you cured that Werewolf, Remus Lupin, that night under the full moon? Weren't you scared? What if he had bitten you?_

 _L: Well mother told me that I shouldn't be touched by the wolf until I had cured him because if I did would be cursed too. I had lots of practice being fast so I was able to outrun the werewolf until I could wound him enough to faint. Then I cured him when he was unconscious._

 _R: You must be very powerful._

 _L: Mother told me I was but I'm not sure. I think it depends on how you use your power that makes you strong or weak._

 _R: You have one other snake with you could you introduce me?_

 _L: This is Harris he is a Runespoor. His old human friend used to travel a lot so Harris has been all over Britain he helps me know where to go. He is very smart._

 _R: One final question before I take your picture and let you go. What are your plans?_

 _L: I want to continue to help all of these people who need my help. I'm the only one who can do this right now. I want to go home and see my friend Severus and then I think I will keep doing what I have been doing. The only thing holding me back from curing more people is lack of Asclepius venom and the werewolves. When I find a person who has been cursed I can cure them._

 _R: How have you been finding people?_

 _L: Well they find me, they send me letters with owls and write their addresses on them. I used that to find them. I came to this village because someone wrote a letter with directions on how to get there._

 _R: So you just answer the letters?_

 _L: Yeah. There have been a few letters that people have cursed but I was able to avoid any bad magic._

 _R: Thank you very much Lightning. I believe I can speak for the entire magical world when I say that we will always be grateful for what you are doing._

 _Well that was the interview word for word my dear readers. There are some tragic things in here._

Severus put the paper down unwilling to continue reading Rita Skeeter longer than he absolutely had too. So the boy had been almost cursed a few times. He looked and saw a picture of his friend. The boy's hair was short now, the length his father's had been and he was wearing some smart muggle clothes and had ten snakes wrapped around him. The boy was smiling slightly at the camera and waving. The entire issue was dedicated to the town that had been cured.

Severus began writing down the name of the town and placing the information into the journal he had been creating. The boy was amazing. Severus went to lunch that day feeling slightly better than he had for weeks. The boy was returning to come see him he had said so and snakes didn't lie. He ate lunch waiting for the charm to tell him that Lightning had returned.

It was in this waiting time when the doors to the great hall burst open. Severus looked over to see the boy walking confidently in. He stood up.

"Sevrus!" Lightning shouted. "I missed you!"

The boy ran at inhuman speeds towards him and grabbed him in a tight hug. The boy had grown in height in the six months he had been gone and it was clear the boy was hitting his first teen growth spurt. The boy let go of him eventually and smiled.

"Lightning. I've missed you too. I'd like to hear about your travels, I was upset you didn't take me with you."

"I'll tell you all about them but first I have to go home and check on my snakes! I've been gone for so long! Do you want to come with me?"

"I'd like that very much."

So Lightning grabbed his hand and popped them a third of the way to the clearing. Then twice more and they were in his home.

"I've been practicing my popping!" Lightning said.

"I can see that." Severus said.

When had the boy learned to become so human? He was so very different than he had been. Before the boy had been nervous and stuttered often over his words now the boy spoke with ease and seemed to exude confidence. The boy was human now. It was a wonderful transformation but Severus regretted he hadn't been there to see it. The boy removed the bag he had on his back and began pulling things out and enlarging them.

A little girl's doll was the first thing he removed then he removed a trunk that was filled to the brim with random things. Lightning saw him looking.

"When I would cured people they gave me things. I never asked for anything but they gave me something to show me how important what I was doing was. Someone named Andrew gave me the trunk and I keep everything in there."

"That was very thoughtful of him."

"I liked it."

The boy continued to unpack and organize things. The wand he had gotten the boy 7 months ago still on his arm and with a few scuff marks from use. The boy was 12 now had been for 9 days. Yet he acted like someone much older.

"Sevrus. Let's go sit down and I'll tell you all about what happened."

So they did. The boy regaled him with tales of the past six months. The boy had met so many people of different lives and beliefs. They all had the same reaction to being free unrelenting gratitude. Some taught him things while others gave him gifts to show how they felt. The boy wouldn't tell him the exact mechanics of the cure telling him that he didn't know the words but Severus knew the boy was finally human enough to keep secrets and he felt more proud than upset.

The boy had sent things home periodically using one of the Asclepius serpents as an owl. He had used them as messengers keeping an eye on his subjects. They had all agreed with his plan to leave and cure the world even going so far as to help him plan.

"Do you know what today is Sevrus?"

"August 9th." He said.

"No, well I mean it is but that's not why it's so important."

"What is important about today?"

"We met a year ago today." Lightning said. "Isn't that awesome! I met a man named Harrison Lewis who told me that people celebrate anniversaries with their family and friends. I wanted to come back and celebrate meeting my friend!"

Severus would never admit to anyone that he smiled. He was the kind that never smiled. Those upturned lips of his were merely a facial tick he had developed around Lightning. The boy smiled brightly back at him, the same smile he had shot at him a year ago when he had done magic for him.

Had it truly been a year? A full year since he had met the boy? Once the boy had finished unpacking and talking to him about his various trips Severus made a suggestion.

"Would you like to go back to the castle and meet up with the other professors? Have dinner?"

"Sure Sevrus! I learned how to use utensils so I can eat like you do."

"You did, did you?"

"Yeah. I've learned how to do lots of things."

"Why did you come back? There are still many people to cure."

"Really? How many?"

"Thousands. You've cured about 1500 werewolves. It took you over 6 months to do that yes?"

"Yeah. I could only work so fast. The snakes have to produce their venom. As the children get older I will be able to cure more and more."

"You see there are about 30000 werewolves in the world. Most of them are coming to Britain to meet you and try and get a cure. You've only cured 5% of the population."

Lightning's eyes got very wide. He shook his head as if trying to wrap his head around that high of a number.

"It takes my snakes a full three days to replenish their venom supplies. A full adult can cure 70 people and the children can do about 10 each." Lightning said.

"That's 210 people every three days?" Snape asked.

"Yeah."

"Do you know if you could find more Asclepius Serpents?"

"They come to you." Lightning said with a shrug. "They have the ability to pop so it's hard to find them. If they don't want to be found they won't be."

"Lightning. You know if you are willing to stay at the castle for a few days I might be able to create a potion that maximizes the healing properties of their venom. If we can do that then we could cure by the thousands instead of the hundreds."

"I still have to say the spell."

"That's true. How much magic does it take to break the curse?"

There the boy faltered. He seemed to be considering something very seriously. He hissed out to his snakes and they hissed back. He even called out to Glade and asked her advice. He had never seen the boy so nervous to answer a question. Finally the boy spoke.

"Promise not to tell anyone how I do it."


	16. Vermin Removal Service

**AHHHHH! I am so sorry everyone. It's been so long since I've updated. I hate that I was so out of it. My Dad was hospitalized right after i posted the last chapters and things have been crazy since then. Thanks to the stress I hit a huge wall of writers block. Forgive me hopefully I'll be able to get back on schedule with this. Don't forget to review!**

"Unless they don't have enough magic on their own I don't use any of my magic to break the curse." Lightning said looking at Severus. "I use their magic."

"What do you mean you use their magic?" He asked his voice chill.

"I start the spell and then use their magic instead of my own to break the curse." Lightning explained. "It could be really bad if I used it for anything else though or if someone found out how to do it!"

"Bad?"

"I could take your magic Sevrus, all of it and use it for whatever I wanted. I could force your magic to kill you or someone else as if it was my very own." Lightning said scared now. "It's really hard to do but I've done it enough now that it only takes me a moment to do it. If someone evil found out how to do that they could become invincible and all powerful."

The man's face had gone pale with understanding. Snape agreed to tell no one about how Lightning actually did it. The conversation continued and they planned out what they would do. Lightning would spend a week at the castle while Snape experimented with the venom trying to come up with an antidote. If he was successful then the Werewolves would be invited to Hogwarts to be cured by the thousands. If he wasn't then Lightning would continue- traveling the country healing one at a time.

So they went back to the castle. It was dinner time at that point and when Lightning popped them right into the great hall all of the professors were there.

"Hi!" Lightning said happily.

"Lightning!" The professors shouted.

It took about fifteen minutes for Lightning to greet everyone. Then he sat down for dinner and told them all about his travels just as he had done with Severus. Dinner lasted much longer than it normally did. Lightning insisted on spending the night in Severus' quarters. He did not want to be far from his first friend. The guest quarters he had used before were very far indeed. Severus didn't have an extra bed but to Lightning's delight he had an extremely comfortable couch.

It was very late in the evening when they retired to Severus' quarters. The man had transfigured some things into a blanket and pillow and set up a nest for Lightning to use on his couch. Lightning who now owned his own pair of pajamas curled into the blanket like a snake and fell asleep almost instantly.

"Good night Sevrus."

"Good night Lightning."

Lightning had pleasant dreams that night that he did not remember upon waking. He woke up to the unfamiliar but welcome look of the dungeon stone ceiling. He was reluctant to get out from under the warmth of the blanket but did so anyway. The stone floor was very cold on his feet and he walked on his toes to the bathroom.

Just as he did the last time he was in the castle he took a colorful bubbly shower and dried himself off. He changed into some day clothes and was happy to see that someone or something had cleaned all of his clothing for him. He studied himself in the mirror and almost didn't recognize the person staring back. He knew the hair cut had made him look different, and he knew that the clothing had made him more human but there was something else now. He wasn't sure, maybe he looked less scared?

Lightning had always been a little frightened of something. The Forbidden Forest that he called home was full of things that could and would eat him given the opportunity. Then there was the unbridled fear of people he had had for so long. That was gone now though. He wasn't frightened of strangers anymore. Maybe that was why he looked different in the mirror. Or maybe it was just the short hair.

Now what should he do today? He knew from experience that most people wouldn't be up for a few hours. He always rose with the rising sun but someone had explained to him that most people didn't wake until later. That knowledge however did not stop Lightning from walking silently in his socks down the hallway towards the room he assumed was Severus' bedroom.

He opened the door silently and was pleased to see that it was indeed a bedroom. It was very dark inside the room but that did not deter him. He shut the door which had been the only true light source. He prowled silently over to the bed and stood up like a snake about to strike. He twitched his left hand causing the lights in the room to turn on. He jumped right onto his friend with a yell.

"WAKE UP!"

Lightning landed right on top of the man's chest causing the man to shoot straight up wand in hand. It only took him moments to realize where he was and instantly attack Lightning with his hands. It was entirely new experience being tickled. However this was one thing that came instinctively to all people. Harry giggled lightly, then he laughed loudly trying to fend off the hands.

"Stop…it!" He yelled out but the man merely continued.

"This is what you get for waking me up." The man growled out.

It took some work but Lightning managed to fall off the bed and away from the man's rather deft fingers. He scurried under the bed which was small enough to fit him but definitely not a grown man. It was rather dusty down there which meant that Lightning was dirty once more but that hardly mattered to him.

"I just wanted to get some food!" Lightning defended himself.

This was mostly a lie. He did want food that morning but that was hardly the reason he had for jumping on the man. Lightning had no real reason for that.

"And this required you to jump on me like a hooligan?" He asked silkily.

"Yes." Lightning answered back candidly.

The man became visible to Lightning from underneath the bed. He had gotten of the bed and was now on the ground craning his neck to look at the boy under the bed.

"Very well get out from under there then."

Lightning not wanting to be tickled into submission again got on the other side of the bed. His hands, pants and hair were covered in dust. The man waved his wand at Harry with a muttered word Lightning didn't quite catch. Suddenly he was clean again which caused Lightning to beam, human magic was so useful!

"Give me five minutes and I will escort you to the great hall for breakfast."

Lightning nodded and ran out of the room once more missing the smile the man sent his way. True to his word five minutes later the man came billowing out in his black robes. He motioned for Lightning to follow, which he did. As they walked Severus asked him questions.

"What did you want to do today?"

"I thought you wanted to spend time experimenting with the venom?"

"Yes I did but that doesn't answer my question."

Lightning gave him a look before thinking hard.

"I could spend time with you while you did that, I could read, or I could go visit Ron, Fred and George."

"Why not Draco?" The man asked.

"I saw him a while ago. I met his dad in a big city and got invited to dinner."

"I see. I think you would find me muttering under my breath and experimenting rather boring. I tend to focus only on my cauldron when I do and I'm not much fun to be around." Severus explained. "How about you bring one of your snakes over and they can give me a few vials of venom, then you can use the floo to visit the Weasley family."

Lightning thought about it. It seemed like a good plan. He could see the boys who had befriended him and meet the rest of their family. He could even tell them his human name, he could trust them not to tell anyone. Lightning agreed to the idea that his friend had put forth. They had breakfast alone since no one else was up this early in the morning. When they finished Lightning asked Severus to wait there.

"I'm going to get one of the snakes to stay with you. He likes the quiet and will be able to give you venom whenever you ask for it."

The man seemed interested and Lightning popped away. He returned five minutes later with Severus the snake in tow. The man was still seated at the table. The snake in question was curled around Lightning's forearm.

"Sevrus meet Sevrus." Lightning introduced the snake by holding out his arm.

The snake lifted his head and glared at the man. He glared at everyone. The man raised his eyebrow in amusement.

"Pleasure."

The snake did not hiss back. Lightning smirked.

"He doesn't like people, or snakes, or anybody really."

"I can relate to that."

"Show us where to go and I'll help make Sevrus comfortable."

Severus did just that. Lightning cleared off a book shelf, placed a heating charm on it and allowed the snake to slither onto it. Severus retrieved some empty vials which Lightning then filled with the venom. He handed the still warm vials to his friend. Then he gave instructions to his snake friend.

 _"_ _Severus. Please stay here and rest. The two legger Severus is trying to discover a way to make your healing venom more potent. If he asks for more venom you're to give it to him. It will be quiet here and none of your siblings will be here to annoy you."_

 _"_ _Of course Lightning."_

"Sevrus. If you need more venom you can take it from Sevrus the snake. He's agreed to rest here and behave himself."

"That is fine Lightning. It is early but I imagine that your friends will be waking now. You can use my fireplace to go there. Do you know how to use the floo system?"

"Yeah."

"Very good. Their house is called the Burrow. Call first and see if you can visit before you just barge in."

Lightning went over to the fireplace and grabbed the tin full of green shimmering powder. He threw it and smiled as it turned bright green he spoke the place clearly and then kneeling down stuck his face into the embers. Except he didn't see the embers instead he saw a homey living room with a worn couch. A girl was sitting on the couch and she jumped in fright at Lightning's face.

"Hi. My name's Lightning, I'm friends with Ron, Fred and George."

"You're the boy in the paper." She said moving closer.

"Yeah! I wanted to come and visit them today. Can I?"

The girl titled her head thinking and studying him.

"Sure come on through."

Lightning pulled his head out and then walked straight through. He fell onto their carpet right at the feet of the girl. He looked up and blushed at the lack of grace. She was laughing at him and he scowled while standing up. When he was finally face to face with her his breath was taken away. She had long red hair and light brown eyes. She was the prettiest girl he had ever seen.

"Hi." He said sticking out his hand in the perfect human greeting.

"Hello." She said taking his hand in a firm grip. "My name is Ginny."

"Do you know where Ron, Fred and George are?"

"Theirs rooms. Come on I'll show you."

Just like the little girl from months ago that he had cured she dragged him into their home and up some rickety stairs. She gave him a quick tour as they went and Lightning thought that this was by far the coolest house he had ever been in. They came to the third floor and she banged on one of the doors.

"FRED, GEORGE! YOU HAVE A FRIEND HERE WHO WANTS TO SEE YOU!"

Two identical faces with very messy hair popped reveal themselves when the door opened. They looked at Ginny angrily before turning to see Lightning at the door.

"Lightning!" They said shouting and tackling the boy into the ground.

Lightning laughed and crawled out from underneath them. They woke up Ron next and the three boys took Lightning on a tour of the home. Lightning had activated his magic sight and enjoyed seeing everything glowing. That was until he saw a strange rat person. Ron was showing him his pet rat Scabbers but the rat was clearly a person, he glowed too brightly.

"Can I hold him?" Lightning asked nicely extending his hand out.

Ron plopped the fat brown rat into his hands and Lightning studied it closely. How to get the thing back into human form. The man could have been turned into a rat by another and been stuck that way for years! Lightning knew what he could do. He could ask Minerva or Albus for help. They were both good with transfiguration magics and would know how to help the poor human rat. He ran some magic through the rat forcing it to sleep deeply and gripped it tightly.

"Ron I think Scabbers is a person."

"Really?" Ron asked with a wry grin.

"What makes you think-"

"-Something silly like that?"

"When I use my magic sight on him he glows just like a person would. Maybe sometime before your brother found him he was a regular person who got turned into a rat by someone mean and couldn't get back."

"That's terrible." Ron said.

"Yeah. I can take him back to Hogwarts. Minerva and Albus are really good with transfigurations and they will make him a person in no time."

Ron, Fred and George all agreed that this was a good plan. Ron however seemed sad at the loss of his pet. Lightning couldn't help but wonder if he could make it better.

"What kind of pet do you want, Ron?"

"Huh?"

"Well I'm taking your pet away, according to the human customs I learned I should replace your pet. What do you want?"

The boy seemed to consider this. Fred and George gave Lightning an appraising look before helping Ron pick out an owl. Lightning promised to get an owl from Diagon Alley as soon as he helped Scabbers become human again. This made all of the brothers happy for their current owl was rather old.

He met the Weasley Matriarch soon after that and was introduce to the concept of mothering. The woman clucked over him and worried about him. No words he could give would reassure her of his health. He was too skinny and certainly needed more layers for all of his travels. She forced him to stay for dinner where he met the Patriarch of the house Arthur. He was seated next to Ginny who proceeded to run their conversation.

She was a strong willed person, who apparently like Harry Potter, Quidditch, and Charms. Her brothers made a joke about her having a crush on Harry Potter much to her chagrin. Lightning thought it was weird for her to like him before ever having met him and resolved to ask Severus about it later. Ginny also knew some cool spells and was quite powerful. Lightning felt that if Ginny wanted to, she could easily eat him. Severus was wrong, females were scary.

The house was amazing and Lightning decided he wanted one just like it when he was bigger. In his mind it was filled with his friends both snake and human. He probably wouldn't have the ghoul on the seventh floor though. He would make sure to have a potions lab just for Severus so that the man could visit often and still do his work. He'd have lots of human beds so that anyone of his numerous friends could visit when they wanted too and have a place. He would fill the walls with the pictures he had taken of the people he had met.

The house would be colorful too. Lightning liked color and he wanted Art everywhere! It had seemed important and he wanted to look at it. He would have warm places for his snakes to be as well as safe places for them to slither around so that no one would ever step on them. He would have a pool of water for his water snakes and a dry room for his desert snakes. He would have a nursery for the eggs and hatchlings so that they were safe.

Most importantly though he would have a big table just like this one. The Weasley family had a large family table big enough to hold like 15 people. It was sturdy and had marks all over it from extended use. It screamed home and comfort. Lightning wanted a table just like this. He wanted it to be full for every meal, full of people who wanted to be his family.

He had met so many families during his travels. For the first time in a long time he missed something that he could never remember having. He wanted a family. He wanted to live in the same house as a bunch of other humans who liked him. He wanted his snakes to be happy there too. Someplace safe.

When dinner was over Lightning checked to make sure that Scabbers was still with him. The rat person was still dead to the world and Lightning used the floo to go back to Severus' quarters. This time he did not land flat on his face but instead landed onto his knees scraping them on the hard stone. He stood up and decided to pop to the great hall where hopefully Albus and Minerva would be. He was rewarded by seeing most of the adults still there. Even Moony was there.

"Moony!"

"Lightning! You're here!"

Lightning hugged the man tightly before pulling him over to the table where Albus and Minerva were sitting.

"Albus, Minerva. I need help with a transfiguration problem."

"What is that dear?" Minerva asked happily.

Lighting pulled out the rat and plopped the sleeping form onto the table.

"That's a person. He glows just like a person. I don't know how he is a rat but someone must have changed him into a rat and he got stuck that way. He's been living as a rat with Percy and Ron for eleven years. He needs help."

The three adults looked down on the rat. Only Moony looked confused and a little scared. Moony picked up the rat lightly and examined the tail and then the left paw. He let out a single word.

"Wormtail."

"What do you mean Moony? What's wormtail?"

"Lightning do you remember how I taught your father and his friends how to become animals so that they could help me when I turned into a wolf? Well Peter could turn into a rat that looks just like this one. We called Peter Wormtail since his tail looked just like a worm."

"I thought Peter Pettigrew was dead?" Minerva whispered. "They only found the man's left pinky after the blast."

"Look Minerva." Albus said gravely. "That rat is missing one of its toes on his left paw."

Lightning was now confused. Wasn't Peter one of his dad's best friends? He picked the rat up and looked at it. Still sleeping under the influence of his magic.

"I don't understand. I thought Peter was one of my Dad's best friends? Why is he pretending to be a rat?"

Moony had not told him much detail about what had happened to the two other friends. Only that one, Peter, had died and that the other was in a very bad place far away. If this was Peter then what had happened?

"Can you make him a person again?" He asked.

"We can Lightning. Although I do believe we will need Severus' help for an interrogation." Albus said his voice cold something Lightning had never heard before. "Minerva go get Severus and tell him to come to my office immediately with a bottle of Veritaserum. Remus I need you to fire call Alastor Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Tell them I require the services of an auror and have them meet me in my office, immediately. Use the old passwords if you must."

Everyone nodded and quickly set up their tasks. Lightning held onto the rat tightly. He was very confused. Albus told him to keep a tight hold onto the rat and not let it out of his sight or grip. As he led Lightning through the halls towards his office he gave an explanation.

"Your father had three close friends when he went to Hogwarts. Remus Lupin, whom you call Moony, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. They were very close and got into all sorts of trouble together." Albus began.

"Moony told me that Sirius was in a bad place far away and that Peter was dead just like my Dad." Lightning offered.

"Let me explain a little more. When you were born the Dark Wizard was attacking lots of different people. Your parents wanted to protect you so they went into hiding under a special spell. This spell hid their location from everyone but one person. That person was the Secret Keeper and it was his job to protect your parents from the Dark wizard." Albus said. "Your parents picked Sirius Black to be their secret keeper. According to all witness accounts we have Black betrayed your parents and led the Dark Wizard to them. This allowed him to kill your mother and father."

Lightning felt very hurt but also very angry. His eyes glittered with rage, not unlike what he had felt when he had faced the Wyvern after it had hit Severus. Albus looked back at him and continued the story.

"While the world celebrated Voldemort's defeat, that was the dark wizards name, Peter searched out for Sirius to get revenge for your parents. Peter confronted Black in the middle of a muggle street. Sirius shot a spell at him which caused a huge explosion killing Peter and 13 other muggles. The only part of Peter's body that survived the blast was his left pinky." Albus said sadly. "Sirius Black was arrested by good wizards and put into a jail so that he would pay for his betrayal."

"But if this rat is Peter then that means Sirius didn't kill him." Lightning said shaking the rat slightly.

"That is why we are going to my office. We are going to find out what happened truly. I want you to be very quiet while this is happening. If Peter is dangerous he might try and grab you. Do you understand?"

Lightning did to a point. He knew that some people were dangerous and that this rat person might be one of those people. Yet this was supposedly one of his parent's best friends who was dead, who was also a magical rat. They came up to a very ugly statue. Albus said a word to it and it swiveled around to reveal a staircase. The staircase obviously magical that moved on it's own. Lightning took a careful step up the stairs and let it lead him up.

The office was an amazing room and Lightning knew he could spend hours playing with all of the shiny things inside. There was a beautiful bird that was resting. It was the color of fire.

"What's that?" He asked pointing to the bird.

"That is a Phoenix. He is my familiar and his name is Fawkes."

"They don't live in the forest." Lightning said taking a few tentative steps towards the bird.

"They are rare and prefer to live on top of high mountains." Albus explained. "You may ask to pet him. He is friendly."

The bird had woken and was studying Lightning. Lightning extended his hand allowing the bird to sniff it if he wished.

"Hello my name is Lightning. I'm a king sort of. Lots of snakes follow me but I don't like make laws or anything. I was chosen by the Snake Mother too. Do you know about her?"

The bird trilled lightly in an approving tone. Lightning smiled back, the tune gave him a light happy feeling.

"Can I pet you?"

The phoenix nodded and Lightning placed his hand lightly on his head. The bird began singing a calming tune. After a few moments Lightning pulled away. People began filling the room surrounding Lightning. Severus and Minerva came in, followed quickly by Moony and two strange men. Lightning took a few steps so that he was next to Severus, whose dark robes hid him slightly from view. The man looked down and smirked at him.

Severus then put his hand on Lightning's shoulder and forced him to stand in front of Severus. The rat was still in Lightning's hands. Once everyone was settled Albus began talking again.

"Alastor and Kingsley, I've called you here because I believe we have a living dead man. Peter Pettigrew supposedly died 11 years ago but it has come to my attention that he was an illegal animagus. Remus Lupin an old friend of Peter's saw this rat and identified it as Peter's animagus form."

"Why would he spend a decade as a rat?" One of the men asked, he had lots of scars and a weird blue spinning eye.

"I do not know. I have a feeling that all is not as it seems. I called you here to have a legal presence when we interrogate Peter. You can ensure everything is following the law as well as use whatever evidence we find."

"That seems sound Albus." The other man said. "Turn him back into a human."

Severus pushed Lightning forward into the circle. Lightning sent a half-hearted glare at him before placing the sleeping rat on a chair. Minerva moved forward as Lightning moved back, as she began waving her wand and working on the rat Lightning hid behind Severus again. The man gave him a strange look.

"I thought you weren't scared of strangers anymore?" He asked.

"Albus said that if Peter's been hiding this whole time he must have a really good reason. He might be dangerous and try and take me away. I'm supposed to stay out of the way."

"So you're using me as a human shield?"

"You're supposed to protect me aren't you?" Lightning pushed again.

The man's cheeks pinked a little and he turned back to the action. With a spell Minerva forced Peter back into his human form. The man was still asleep but he was now snoring loudly. Minerva took a few steps back to stand next to Severus.

"Shouldn't he be awake? That spell is very painful." Minerva asked.

"OH!" Lightning said. "I made him go to sleep with some snake magic he won't wake up till I wake him up. I didn't want him to get lost until I got him some help."

"Well then wake him up." The scarred man ordered.

Lightning gulped not at all liking the way that man stared him down. He squared his shoulders after a minute and returned the glare, he was a king after all! He would not be frightened into submission by any human. He went towards the sleeping man and placed a hand on his head. He focused his magic and sent it towards the man telling him to wake up. The man began to awaken within moments and Lightning moved back to his position of safety.

The man, who was fat, very dirty and had blonde hair was now looking around the room. His breath hitched as he looked down and saw his very human hands. The room was silent they were are all entranced by staring at the man who should by all accounts be dead. Why had he hidden? What had happened? They were all broken out of their musings by one broken voice. Moony took a step forward his face looking broken and his body like it was about to fall apart.

"Peter."


	17. To Survive

**Woo. This was very difficult to write. I know it's a little shorter then the last one but I think it's a strong one anyway. Please review and tell me what you think.**

Peter had never been the smart or powerful one of the group. He just was. Remus had been the smart one, Sirius the handsome one, James the powerful and athletic. Peter was just there. That wasn't the reason he had brought their location to the Dark Lord though. No, Peter hadn't done it for revenge or out of a misplaced need to be a part of something bigger. Those may have been smaller reasons but the main drive was to survive.

There was a reason his animagus form was a rat. Rats who could and would do anything to survive. Who lived anywhere and everywhere, all in the name of continued survival. Rats who lived at the bottom of a disgusting food chain yet still managing to survive. Peter hadn't wanted to join the Order. He wasn't smart or powerful and he knew it. He knew full well that if he joined the Order he would be killed. He needed to do something to survive that. So he had come to Voldemort and volunteered to be a spy for the man.

Voldemort was cruel and Peter certainly didn't agree with the man's beliefs or tactics. Voldemort was an insane madman who needed to be stopped at all costs. That didn't mean Peter was the one for the job. Peter's goal was to survive. He knew that the others wouldn't agree or even understand. James and Sirius had always been so carefree, sure of their immortality. They had yet to hit their limit so to speak. Auror training had come easily to them, whereas it had been hellishly difficult for Peter.

When James and Sirius had insisted that Peter be the secret keeper he found himself unable to say no. This had not been a part of the plan. He was supposed to pass information on, not directly lead to the death of his best friends. He loved them dearly. He had tried to say no, tried to give some many reasons as to why he would be the worst choice imaginable. They hadn't listened, they never did.

Peter had tried to hide the information about who the secret keeper was from Voldemort but the man had rifled through his mind like he was an open book. Peter had been faced with a choice. Die or tell Voldemort the information he wanted. In the face of everything he had done, of everything he thought was to come the choice had been easy. No one but James, Sirius and Lily knew he was the real secret keeper.

It would've been pretty easy to get Sirius blamed for it. Voldemort had given him the plan and Peter had taken him to Godric's Hollow. Then Voldemort was gone. He had blown up as if he had never been. Leaving behind only a wand and a crying baby. Peter had taken the wand and run.

He knew Sirius would kill him when he found him next. Sirius had always been hot headed and there would be no way to placate the man. Not that Peter didn't blame him. Part of Peter wanted to be punished for this. What he had done was wrong. He had basically killed one of his best friends. It was the ultimate betrayal, he deserved to die and go to hell for it. Yet, his pesky survival instincts jumped in once more and Peter had done what needed to be done to survive.

He had spent the last decade living as a pet rat. Not a comfortable existence being turned into goblets, thrown around or tested on. It wasn't awful either, he was fed regularly and no suspected him. He was safe. Peter wasn't sure how he had ended up in a chair surrounded by people who all thought him dead. One moment he was sleeping in Ron's pocket and now he was here.

He looked at each person in the room. Snivellous was here, standing behind him a young boy who looked just like James. Remus was here looking at him with hope mixed with a look of betrayal and pain. Albus was standing there his eyes hard and no longer twinkling. McGonagall had her lips pursed into a thin white line, showing her disapproval. Moody and Kingsley were there as well. How had this happened and what was he going to do? He felt himself panicking it wasn't supposed to be this way. He was supposed to live out the rest of his life as a rat, dying in his sleep due to old age.

The little boy moved slightly and looked at him his green eyes wide in apprehension and fear. It was definitely Harry then, the boy he had orphaned. Remus had said his name in a begging tone. Begging the world that what he was seeing wasn't true. Peter had no idea what to say, he had no time to come up with any kind of explanation when Albus spoke.

"Severus give him three drops of Veritaserum. I do not wish to delay getting an answer nor do I trust Peter to give us a straight answer on his own."

Peter needed to leave right now. He jumped up stunning the group momentarily. He ran towards the door. He just needed to get through that door then he could transform into a rat and hide again, this time someplace farther away. Except he had taken two steps forward when suddenly he was on the ground. He couldn't move a single muscle. He couldn't even breathe.

"Thank you Lightning. It would have been pesky trying to catch him again." Albus said.

He heard Moody use the levitation spell on his body and lift him back into the chair. Kingsley shot a spell to tie him to the chair and keep him there. While Minerva placed a charm on him to keep him from transforming for the next 12 hours. He still couldn't move.

"Lightning." Snape said. "Release him."

No words were uttered but suddenly he could move and breathe again. They didn't give him a chance to speak because the moment he was breathing Snape forced his mouth open and dropped three drops of that damned potion into him. He felt it take effect immediately. He felt all hazy and withdrawn. He heard a voice speak but he couldn't recognize it.

"What is your name?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"How did you survive the blast 11 years ago?"

"I turned into a rat and fled into the sewers."

"How did you lose your finger?"

"I cut it off with a knife."

"Why?"

"To make people believe I was dead."

"Why?"

"So that Sirius Black would go to jail."

"Wouldn't he had gone to jail anyway for betraying the Potters?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because he did not betray the Potters."

"Who did?"

"I did."

"Tell us the full story of the Potter's demise." Another voice cut in deeply.

"That night I led Voldemort to Godric's Hollow and told him the location of their home. We entered and Voldemort fought James, killing him. Then I waited downstairs. Voldemort killed Lily and then tried to do the same to Harry Potter. Something went wrong and he exploded leaving nothing behind but his wand. I knew people would arrive soon so I took Voldemort's wand and ran."

"So you were the secret keeper then?" The voice asked.

"Yes."

"What happened the day you were confronted by Sirius Black?"

"I yelled at him blaming him for James and Lily's death. Then I cut off my own finger, shot a blasting hex at a gas line and fled in my animagus form."

"Are you a death eater?" A third voice cut in sadly.

"I am."

"When did you take the Dark Mark?" The third voice continued.

"Shortly after joining the Dumbledore's Order."

"Why would you join Voldemort?"

"To survive."

"Why did you become the Secret Keeper?"

"James and Sirius made me. They thought I was the perfect choice. I did not want to."

"Why did you betray their location?"

"To survive."

"Give him the antidote Severus."

Suddenly he had something foul tasting in his mouth and he could concentrate again. He knew the game was up. He looked around and decided to try one more ploy. He looked at the little boy, little Harry. He sniffed.

"Harry. You must understand. I did what I had to do to survive. I didn't want your parents to die. They wouldn't listen to me."

The boy with his green eyes were narrowed in rage. He had been the wrong person to beg. The boy seemed to glow with power as he stepped forward. When the boy spoke it was with condemnation.

"Snakes do what they must to survive. The rules of the forest are cruel. But no snake would do something like this. If you were still a rat I would have my mother eat you. But I learned a few months ago that humans have a way to punish the evil. You will go to jail."

Then the boy turned on his heel and walked behind Snape again. That had not gone well. He turned to see a look of utter pain on Moony's face. Suddenly he was being lifted up and taken towards the fire place.

"Peter Pettigrew. You are under arrest for the murder of thirteen muggles, the framing of Sirius Orion Black and the betrayal and murder of James and Lily Potter." Moody said.

Kingsley threw some floo powder into the fire and called out their destination. "Ministry of Magic, Auror department." He felt himself pulled in and whisked away. The last thing he saw was his former best friend crying. Then he was in the auror headquarters being taken to a cell. He didn't try to fight it. He knew that there would be an opportunity to get away in the future. Besides he deserved this didn't he?

He was seated once more tied down to a chair in an interrogation room. He was questioned multiple times by people he and some he didn't. He did not speak unless forced too. It took only four hours for them to come to the conclusion that they needed an emergency hearing of the Wizengamot. Peter knew that he would most likely be kissed by the end of the month. He also knew that there was still a chance he could get away. He just had to be careful and watchful, Fate always provided an opportunity.


	18. The Birds and The Bees

**Chapter 18! Sorry to keep you guys waiting. My laptop's motherboard crashed and i lost all of my documents. Took me all this time to retrieve them and get a new laptop. So here ya go. Review please!**

After Peter was dragged through the green flames Remus broke down crying. Lightning moved forward and placed his hand on the man's shaking shoulder. He felt so sad and mad all at the same time. He had never felt such rage, not even when the Wyvern had attacked Severus. This was so much worse, so much greater. He also felt so desolate, his parents were dead because of that ugly man. Moony was crying and hurt because of that man. He opened his mouth and made himself speak.

"So if Peter did it, then what will happen to Sirius? Isn't he still in that bad place?"

"You are correct Lightning." Minerva said quickly.

"Not for long however." Albus cut in. "I will use my influence to get him out of Azkaban by daybreak. Minerva inform Poppy I will be bringing someone in to be treated from long term dementor exposure. Severus, Remus go get something to eat make sure Lightning is aware of what might happen when I bring Sirius Black back here."

"Headmaster. Are you sure it is safe to bring Black here? He could be insane." Severus broke in.

"He very well might but it is partially my fault for him being put there illegally in the first place. It is only right that I try my best to rectify that mistake. I must be going now."

With that the headmaster of Hogwarts left the room using the fireplace. Minerva left moments after that leaving Lightning alone with Moony and Severus. Lightning sat down next to the man and gave him a half hug trying to make the man feel better.

"Don't cry Moony. Your friend Sirius is going to be here soon."

This if anything made the man cry harder. Lightning shot a look of confusion at Severus who rolled his eyes and sat down on the ground too. He glared at Lightning his eyes telling him to keep what was about to happen very secret. The man then reached out and placed his stained hands on the shaking shoulders of the other man.

"Remus Lupin." He said in a calm voice. "Now is not the time to mourn the loss of Potter and Lily. Nor is it time to swear revenge on Pettigrew. You also do not have the time to feel guilty over thinking Black was a mass murderer. It is nearing midnight now."

Moony had stopped crying and was looking at Severus with a look of surprise.

"I am not known for my ability to give comfort. I do not know how nor do I wish to learn such skills. Despite this I will endeavor to assuage your grief at this time." Severus began again. "You are not at fault for anything that has happened here. You are as blameless in this whole affair as Lightning. Black will be coming soon and he will not blame you in fact he will most likely blame himself. You must be there for him to help him heal and understand how the world has changed in the past decade. So get off your arse, stop wallowing in self pity and do it."

Moony laughed then which was much better than crying.

"Thank you Severus that was perfect until the end."

Severus' cheeks were pinked at that point and the man stood up.

"Lightning it is time for us to rest. Come. There are some things I must explain to you."

"Bye Moony. I'm sorry you're sad. If it helps I'm sad too. I'm also really furious."

Moony nodded in understanding and gave a whispered goodbye to Lightning. Lightning grabbed Severus' hand and popped them into his rooms. The man shot him a questioning look and Lightning just shrugged, he felt tired and drained. He didn't feel like walking. He sat down the couch and sighed.

"Sevrus. You were wrong. Girls are scary. Ron's little sister could definitely eat me if she wanted to. I had a few questions about that too."

The man sat down looking nervous and frightened as if Lightning had asked him to murder someone. The man cleared his throat and a blush erupted from his cheeks.

"Well Lightning." He clear his throat again. "When two people love each other very much. They do something to show that."

The man was a nervous wreck all of a sudden. Lightning frowned and tried to make sense of what Severus was trying to tell him. After all he hadn't even asked his question yet. He remembered when he was 9 and Glade had explained how two snakes mate and make eggs. She had used some of the same words but hadn't been nearly as nervous. Was this the first time Severus had ever tried to explain mating to someone else? Were humans scared of mating? Had Severus ever mated with someone? That would explain why he was so nervous if he hadn't ever done it then he would be embarrassed to talk about it. Lightning decided to end that conversation quickly.

"I know all about mating Severus. You don't need to tell me anything." He assured and then went on to explain. "When a female snake wants to mate she releases a scent that tells all the nearby boys that she wants to. Then she picks a few of them and they curl around each other. A little while later she lays eggs. Then the eggs hatch and you have new hatchlings. It's not rocket science."

The man was looking at him as if he had never seen him before. The man cleared his throat a third time and shook his head.

"No Lightning. You see that is how snakes do it but you see humans have a totally different process all together."

What followed next was the most horrifying explanation of human biology that Lightning had ever been given. Why didn't humans lay eggs? It's so much easier and less disgusting! Also why did a female only do it with one male at a time? How would she decide which sperm was the best if she only had one male to choose from? It seemed dangerous to not allow yourself to have the healthiest and strongest babies possible. Lightning knew humans weren't monogamous like Lyla and Slicer were so that didn't explain it at all.

Lightning also decided that human females were much scarier than their snake counterparts. Human females bleed every month! The act like nothing is wrong either! If a female snake was bleeding she would at least sequester herself to heal but these woman just act as if they aren't injured. They also carry the babies inside of themselves for nine months. Nine! That is so much work and it's so dangerous too! Why would anyone willingly have children?

He thought about Mrs. Weasley and here seven children. He felt waves of respect for that kind of warrior. It also explained to Lightning why human bonds were so strong compared to most of the kinds snakes have. Most snakes with a few exceptions mate and then never see each other again. But these humans had to work really hard to have a hatchling of course they'd be attached to each other.

Severus answered all of Lightning's questions generally with a blush on his face and more stuttering than Lightning had ever heard. When they finally finished it had been three hours and Lightning's mind had been blown open at least four separate times. Finally Severus gave him time to ask his original question.

"Now Lightning you know that if you have any questions, you can come to me."

"I know Sevrus. You still haven't answered my first question. Ron's little sister, the really scary one? She told me she liked Harry Potter and that she wanted to marry him. Why? She doesn't even know me?"

The man stared blankly at him. He drummed his fingers on his knee.

"That was your first question?"

"Yes. I thought it was weird."

"In human culture you are considered a great hero because you defeated Voldemort. People are often attracted to heroes. This girl you met has a crush on you because she thinks you are a hero and a good person. It will go away in time."

"Oh. That makes sense. Thanks Sevrus."

Severus just stood then and went to bed. Lightning had never stayed up this late before the sun was going to rise soon. He fell asleep on the couch and woke up from his short nap as the sun rose. He was exhausted but he knew it was time to get up anyway. He rolled off the couch. Instead of waking up Severus he let the man sleep. Albus had said that Sirius Black would be here by dawn. It was dawn now. He left Severus' quarters and made his way slowly to the infirmary.

He opened the door to see one bed occupied and a chair next to it. In the bed was a man he did not recognize, he had long dirty hair and he looked starved. He could only assume that that was Sirius. In the chair was Moony who was asleep and holding Sirius' hand tightly. Lightning waved his hand and put a sleeping spell on Moony. The man looked tired and he didn't want to wake him up. He then grabbed a nearby chair and dragged it over to the occupied bed. He climbed into the chair and stared at the man.

He activated his magic sight and saw that man was just as powerful as Severus was. He also saw that his core was covered in darkness, likely an after effect of Azkaban. Lightning reached out and placed his hand on the man's chest. He sent some of his magic into the man trying to make the man feel better, happier. The darkness around the man's core abated some and Harry heard the man gasp in surprise.

"Harry?"


	19. Come and Play Padfoot!

**Chapter 19! It's Sirius time everyone. I hope you enjoy it. Review please it gives me life!**

Sirius had been woken abruptly at around 1 in the morning by his cell door being opened. He had looked up his eyes blurred to see Albus Dumbledore looking at him with guilt.

"Headmaster?" He breathed out.

"Sirius I'm so sorry. We discovered Peter. He is in custody now, I've come to take you to Hogwarts."

Sirius only understood part of that. He understood the word Hogwarts. His home, he stood up his legs trembling and suddenly he was being supported by the old headmaster. The man helped him walk through the halls of Azkaban. Sirius' mind was confused but he knew he was leaving. Was he finally being sentenced to the kiss? No Albus had said something about Hogwarts.

Sirius finally understood what was happened when they were on a boat leaving the prison and he was eating some chocolate. His mind cleared and he felt warm again. He hadn't felt warm in years.

"Headmaster. Where are we going?"

"Hogwarts, Madame Pomphrey is expecting you. I will leave you in her capable hands. I know Remus is going to be there as well to help you settle. Once again I'm sorry my boy for not getting you a trial. It was reprehensible on my part."

"Does this mean you got Peter?"

"Yes. He is in custody now. We are aware that he is a rat animagus and he is in a cell at the ministry that prevents his transformation. There has been an emergency wizengamot meeting called that I will need to attend in about 6 hours for his hearing."

"He deserves it that ruddy bastard." Sirius spit.

His head was filled with the images of the dead bodies of Lily and James, the burning house and a crying wounded baby. Harry. He was supposed to take care of Harry. He looked at the headmaster.

"How long was I in there? Is Harry okay?"

"You have been in Azkaban for over a decade my boy. Harry is 12 years old, although he is much different than any of us expected."

"Is he happy? Is he healthy?"

"I would say so. He is at Hogwarts now and you will most likely see him in the morning. He is a strange boy but he is honest and caring. Ask him about himself and he will tell you everything that has happened to him. He is much more like his mother than he is his father, although I know he does enjoy pranking."

"Really? That's awesome. I can teach him all of these cool spells and…"

"You need to focus on recovering Sirius. You are very weak." Albus interrupted. "Harry is a very busy boy and he will be leaving the castle at the end of the week to continue his noble quest. He's only staying the week because Severus requested it."

"Noble quest? What are you on about?"

"Ask Harry. It is a very convoluted story that will make more sense coming from him than from me." Albus side stepped. "Now let me help you out of this boat and take you to Hogwarts."

He allowed the man to pick him up and apparate him outside Hogwarts. Sirius' breath caught at the familiar sight of the magical castle. It was beautiful in the middle of the night, the full moon shimmering onto the ground bathing it in its pale light. Albus had said Moony would be there for him but that was impossible the man was indisposed. He sighed he would have to see his friend wounded once more in the hospital wing.

Sirius had gotten a tattoo when he was 17, his first act as an adult. It was a magical tattoo of the lunar cycle. It was on his left side and it would burn the day the moon was full. He had gotten it so that he would never forget when he needed to be near Moony to help him. In Azkaban it had kept him sane, it would burn and remind him that there were other emotions other than just sadness. It was burning now and Sirius was stabbed with guilt, how many moons had Moony spent alone?

Albus opened the doors for him and walked him through the familiar halls on the familiar path to the infirmary. James' laughter echoed around him and Remus' admonishments entered his mind. He saw all of the memories of their group right before his eye. There was where they hid from Filch the first time, right behind that suit of armor. There was where he and Remus played chess every Saturday.

He felt overwhelming remorse and guilt eat at him. James should be alive. This was all his fault. Even the infirmary was filled with such happy and sad memories. Madame Pomphrey was there clicking her tongue as usual. He gave her a small smile and laid down in a bed. She began treating him, giving him potions and casting warming charms. She banished his dirty robes and handed him a hospital gown.

Once he was changed into that she ordered him into bed to rest. He looked out the window and frowned at the winking moon. He rubbed the burning tattoo and wished that he knew where Moony was and if he was okay.

"I'm sorry Moony." He whispered.

"I'm the one who should be apologizing." Remus said.

"Moony!" Sirius shouted falling out of bed in surprise. "You're here. Wait you're here and not covered in fur. What happened? Why aren't you snarling at me? Is this all some kind of dream?"

"Padfoot." The man said hugging him tightly. "Let's get you back into the bed before you catch a cold. I'll tell you everything you want to know."

So Sirius got into bed and squeezed his best friends hand tightly.

"Padfoot. There's a cure for Lycanthropy now. It was discovered about six months ago. I was the first cured. It's a spell and only one living person can cast it so only about 5 percent of the population has been cured but Lightning is working on curing the entire world."

"A cure? We always dreamed." Sirius said pulling the man into another hug. "Does this mean you can do everything you wanted to do now? Teach? Own a house? Get married? Have kids?"

"I have the same rights as any other witch or wizard." Moony said happily before sobering. "Padfoot I'm so sorry. I thought you were a traitor. I didn't trust you."

"I thought you were the traitor, that's why I made Peter the secret keeper. I didn't trust you either." Sirius said sadly.

"Sirius this wasn't your fault. It was Voldemort's and Peter's."

"I should've just been the secret keeper. I shouldn't have tried to be clever."

"Sirius stop."

"James and Lily are dead because I'm a fool. Harry's an orphan and you've been alone for a decade because I thought I was smarter than everyone else."

The guilt was becoming too much. He had caused so much suffering and death. Suddenly he was being kissed. Remus was kissing him on the mouth. At Hogwarts he had always wanted to, they both had wanted that. But Remus had always held back saying that it wasn't right to do it since he was a werewolf. Now the man was kissing him. It took Sirius three seconds to realize what that meant and one second to reciprocate the gesture.

Remus pulled away too soon a blush blooming across his face making him look adorable in the moonlight.

"What was that for?"

"To make you shut up. Padfoot. It wasn't your fault. No one blames you alright?"

"Okay Moony." Sirius agree still dazed by that kiss. "Have you met Harry? Albus told me he was here?"

"Well he doesn't go by the name Harry. He goes by the name Lightning so call him that."

"What why?"

Sirius listened for the next thirty minutes as Remus explained how Harry Potter had grown up. Abused by his relatives until he was four years old. The boy disappearing from his relatives his magic taking him away to the forbidden forest. Growing up with the snakes, being able to speak with them and becoming like them in most ways. He told him the story of Severus finding him in the forest and befriending the dirty forest boy and then finally Moony himself meeting him and being cured by the powerful wizard.

Then Moony explained that the boy had left his protected forest home to cure others and had been traveling Britain doing just that for the past six months. Sirius was amazed and a little proud at his godson. The boy was wonderful in every way. The talked for an hour in total before they both drifted off to sleep.

Sirius was awakened by a small hand on his chest and extreme warmth suffusing throughout his body. He felt so good and happy and light, better than he had in the past decade. He opened his eyes to see a 12 year old boy with bright green eyes staring at his chest.

"Harry." Sirius breathed out.

The eyes flickered to him and the boy smiled. He removed his hand and the warmth stopped spreading into his limbs.

"Hello my name is Lightning." The boy said holding his hand for a handshake.

"Hello my name is Sirius Black but you can call me Padfoot." Sirius answered with a smile shaking the hand tightly.

"Okay Padfoot." Lightning said easily. "How are feeling? I tried to get rid of all that dark stuff surrounding you but I don't know if it was working."

"I think it was I'm feeling better than I have in years."

"May I finish then?" Harry asked.

"Go ahead." Sirius said.

It was just as Remus had said the boy just used his hands to do magic. The boy touched his chest and the warmth returned. He knew the boy was funneling magic into him to remove the taint of the dementors. After five minutes Sirius felt clean, as if he had never been in Azkaban. The boy removed his hand and shot him a smile.

"Moony told me all about you." Sirius began. "He told me that you were a king and everything."

"Yes. I am King Lightning. Although I haven't been protecting my kingdom for the past while. I've been helping the werewolves." Lightning said. "Did he tell you about that?"

"He did. I think it's the most amazing news I've ever heard." Sirius said with a smile. "Your dad would be so proud of you."

"He would? I don't remember anything about him. Will you tell me about him?"

Sirius suddenly had the urge to walk through Hogwarts and do things. He could bring Lightning with him.

"If you get me out of the infirmary I can show you the places that your father and I got into trouble."

Lightning smiled at him and nodded.

"Okay I'll pop you out of here but first you need to get clean. You look very dirty."

"I do, do I?" Sirius said. "Well how about I take a quick shower. Wait for me here alright?"

"Okay. Don't worry about Moony. He'll stay sleeping until I wake him up, I put him to sleep with some snake magic. He looked really tired so I didn't want to wake him."

"Can you do that to anyone?"

"Mhm." Lightning nodded in agreement.

"That's so cool. You have to teach me all about it." Sirius said excitedly. "When I get back from my shower."

The boy nodded and Sirius made his way into the nearby bathroom. He locked the door and used the shower like he owned the place. He let the water run as hot as he could handle and scrubbed off the years of dirt. It took some time but when he emerged he was finally clean. He called a house elf and asked him to procure some robes, which the elf did and got dressed. He walked out to see Lightning holding a bright blue snake and hissing at it. He cleared his throat, parseltongue made him nervous. He knew he had to get over that but for now he knew his heart was beating faster.

"Well kiddo, you ready to sneak me out of here?"

"Okay. Padfoot this is Padfoot the snake. He wanted to meet you."

"His name is Padfoot too?"

"Yes he was born with it. He likes to play jokes on people and he never thinks about his actions."

"He looks handsome too." Sirius pushed.

"He is." The boy agreed with a wrinkled nose.

"What's that face for pup?"

"Well Padfoot thinks he's very handsome but Moon and Lily disagree."

"Are those his friends?"

"His brother and sister. They're with their mom right now."

"I see."

It was a little funny to see himself in snake form. He wondered if this snake liked to have fun too. Not that it really mattered. He felt energetic and he wanted to do something.

"Well kiddo what do you want to do today?"

"We can walk around Hogwarts."

"Sure. What tell me have you ever flown on a broom?"

"Once last Christmas. It was really fun."

Sirius grinned.

"Let's go flying!"

Lightning nodded his head and grabbed Sirius' hand he popped them to the quidditch pitch causing Sirius to swear in surprise.

"You can apparate within Hogwarts?"

"Of course. Can't you?" Lightning asked frankly.

Sirius was reminded frankly that this wasn't James who would be preening, nor was it Lily who would be telling an adult. This was a very frank and straightforward 12 year old. Maybe he could teach his pup something after all. Sure he had Remus and even Snape to teach him about magic but who would teach him about fun? Sirius grinned wolfishly and picked up the boy.

"That's so awesome Pup! You must be the only human who can do that!"

"Put me down!" The boy said laughing loudly and screeching.

He probably shouldn't have lifted up the 12 year old he was still weak from his stint in prison. Worth it though. They got some old brooms, brooms Sirius was sure they had had when he had attended flying class 20 years previously. He and Lightning began to fly. He taught the boy some trick maneuvers. The boy had all the grace James had had and it made Sirius giddy to see it. They flew for an hour laughing and giggling. The boy was timid, not surprising since he was raised by snakes. Sirius could change that of course.

His godson could learn all the tricks of the trade. He would be a prankster and a jokester. After their flying time Sirius showed him the way to the kitchens. They had a large breakfast while Sirius regaled him with stories of the mauraders. The boy at first was unsure of how to laugh correctly but by the third story had found a good level.

"So James' foot is stuck in the toilet, I have a half-eaten pie and we hear a prefect coming up the stairs."

"What did you do?"

"The only thing I could do." Sirius said innocently. "When the prefect opened the door I threw the pie in his face."

"You didn't! The entire pie!" Lightning asked enthralled

"It exploded all over the guy."

"What about my dad?"

"He started laughing so hard that he slipped on the water that was all over the floor. He managed to free his foot." Sirius explained laughing. "We were given detention for an entire week for that stunt."

The boy laughed too, not too loud and not too quietly. The giggles made Sirius feel very strong.

"Come on pup. We've bothered the house elves enough. Let's go someplace else."

"Like where?" The boy asked standing.

"Have you ever been to Hogsmeade?"

"No but we can't go there without being bothered."

"Nothing easier. We make ourselves invisible and take a secret passageway out of here."

Lightning frowned a little.

"What's wrong pup? Don't you want to hang out?"

"I do but won't the others be worried?"

"Of course not!" Sirius said with a smile. "Remus is still sleeping from your spell and Snape knows you can take care of yourself just fine."

"Won't you get tired?"

"Don't worry about me." Sirius said brushing off invisible dust on his robe. "I'm strong too and you can just pop us away if something goes wrong."

"You're right Padfoot." The boy said smiling. "Let's go. I'll make us invisible."

"Awesome pup. Let me show you the secret passage way to Hogsmeade near here."

Lightning placed his right hand on him and he felt a tingle of magic go over him. He looked down and realized that he was totally invisible to everyone else. He could still see Lightning though.

"If we stop touching we won't be able to see each other. So keep a hold of my hand."

"Will do pup." Sirius said using his other hand to salute the boy.

Lightning giggled and Sirius began leading him through the halls of Hogwarts telling him the story of how they discovered the passageway to Honeydukes.

"We were in second year. It was all four of us. It was the middle of the night and we were trying to get to the kitchens. Your dad had his invisibility cloak but it was hard to fit all four of us underneath there." Sirius began. "We were passing by this statue of a humpbacked witch when we heard Filch. He was really mean when we went to school and Peter got scared."

Sirius had to keep the anger from seeping out of his voice at the mention of Peter. It wasn't fair to ignore that dirty rat's existence in his life. This was before Peter had turned rotten. Remus had told him that Lightning didn't do well when adult men acted angry around him so he kept his face jovial despite the rage inside.

"What happened next?" The boy asked breathless.

"Peter grabbed onto me because he got scared. This caused me to lose my balance. I grabbed onto James to steady myself but he hadn't been prepared so he started to fall. He grabbed onto Remus and we all tumbled onto the ground. One of us managed to open the passage way and we fell down into the slimy darkness." Sirius recalled. "The entrance closed behind us and we decided to see where it let out. We discovered that it opened up in the cellar of Honeydukes."

"Did you ever use it again?"  
"All the time!" Sirius said with smile. "We used it to sneak out all the time!"

This began a long conversation of the times they had snuck out despite it not being the best idea in the world. He had them both in stitches by the time they arrived at the correct statue. Sirius opened it up and they both jumped inside. Lightning produced a small fire in his hand impressing Sirius and they made their way down the tunnel. When they made it to the end Sirius motioned for the boy to remain quiet. He pushed up the door way and helped the boy crawl out.

Once they were in the store, Sirius explained to Lightning the wonders of magical candy. The boy had learned about many of these things on his trip but it was different seeing them.

"If we could I would buy you some of this stuff but all of my gold is in a bank in London." Sirius explained.

"I've got lots of money in my house. If we want we could go there get some gold and spend it." Lightning offered. "Some of my snakes bring me money they find, they thought I might want it but I've never had a use for it before now."

"Pup. I think you are the coolest Godson anyone could ever ask for." Sirius said with a smile.

They spent the entire day causing trouble in Hogsmeade. Both were invisible and eating chocolate frogs while causing unsuspecting witches and wizards problems. Mild fun pranks that Lightning thought were the greatest use for magic ever. They decided to sneak back into the castle the same way they entered Hogsmeade as the sun began to set. They snuck into Honeydukes and went into their cellar.

When they got back into the castle they decided to get back into the infirmary and wake up Moony for dinner. They stayed invisible until they got back into the hospital wing. Sirius got into a bed and Lightning ended the spells. Moony woke with a start.

"Hey Lightning. What time is it?"

"Dinner time!" Sirius said with a smile. "Want to go sneak into the kitchens with me and Lightning? Or even better do you think we should go to the Great Hall? We could make a great entrance Moony!"

"Sirius. You're not supposed to be out of bed."

"But I feel fine. My amazing Godson fixed me up this morning and we've been having fun all day. Do you want to come along or stay here?"

"Wait what? What did you do today?"

"We went flying and down to Hogsmeade! I had my first chocolate frog and we went to this store called Zonko's that had all this really funny stuff in it!" Lightning explained happily. "Look I got myself on a chocolate frog card!"

Lightning thrust two cards into Remus' hands. One with the title Lightning and one with the title Harry Potter.

"I want to go show Albus that I have two cards!" Lightning said excitedly. "Do you want to come to dinner?"

"Sirius you weren't supposed…"

"Stop being responsible and let's go Moony." Sirius begged.

The watched in pleasure as Remus sighed shook his head and stood up.

"Fine but we are having a long talk about responsible choices tonight Padfoot."

"I can think of something I'd like to do with you much more than just talk Remus." Sirius whispered in his ear making sure Lightning didn't hear.

"Padfoot!" Remus shouted hitting him on the back of the head. "Let's go get dinner."


	20. Future Vision

**Hey everyone! It's been quite a while since I've updated... The only excuse i can give is some serious writer's block and my stressful** **college schedule. Hopefully now that I've gotten some idea of where to go with this story updates will be more regular. Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter and any suggestions you have!**

Severus was nervous and he wasn't even trying to hide it. Lightning was gone. No sign of him was to be found. Sirius Black was also gone and Remus Lupin was in a magical sleep. It all pointed to one thing, his friend was out and about with a 'possibly' insane idiot. Black was always incapable of making smart choices. They could be in France picking up women now for all he knew. He did his best to concentrate by working on the potion. He was actually making some progress. A few more days of work and he might actually have it.

Normally that would have made him giddy with success but the two missing wizards were some cause for concern. He sighed and cleaned up for dinner. As he was leaving the dungeons he heard the familiar laughter of Lupin and Black. He scowled. They were probably planning some kind of trouble. He turned the corner to see them walking with Lightning in between them. When Lightning saw him the boy smiled.

"Sevrus!" The boy shouted running into him and giving him a hug. "Did you have fun with your potion experimenting today? Did you learn anything new? I learned lots of new things!"

Snape saw the looks of jealousy Black was shooting him. He decided to make it worse. He picked the boy up easily and smiled at him.

"Of course I learned something new. A few more days and I should have the potion completed and ready for testing. Now where were you today? You didn't tell anyone where you were going." He accused lightly.

"I went flying with Padfoot and then we went to Hogsmeade and we bought magic candy and ate it."

He continued to carry the boy glad to make Black so jealous.

"Flying? Do tell me more." He pushed.

"Well Padfoot hasn't flown in a long time so he was really shaky on a broom at first so he mostly just watched me do flips and turns and one time I did a corkscrew!"

They were now walking in front of the other two men and Lightning was ignoring them all together. It made him feel very smug but he didn't show that.

"Lightning those moves are dangerous."

"I wasn't alone. Padfoot was there."

"But Black is still very weak from his stay at Azkaban. If you had injured yourself he might not have been able to help you."

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't know. He told me he was all better."

"He most likely thought so but it takes a long time to heal from that place." Snape explained. "The next few weeks Black will have to take it very easy."

"So he'll need to stay in the hospital wing?"

"Oh yes." Snape said empathetically. "He needs to gain a lot of weight and muscle mass to get healthy again. That will take a long time and staying in the hospital wing with Poppy would be best."

"I'll make sure he stays there then." Lightning promised. "I don't want him to get sick again."

"Of course you don't. Now tell me about Hogsmeade. Where did you two go?"

He opened the doors to the great hall and turned to see Black looking at him with revenge in his eyes and Lupin was trying hard not to laugh. He smirked at the two before turning back to listen to Lightning. The boy had them sit down so that he was next to Albus on one side and Minerva on the other. Severus was sitting in front of him. The boy removed three chocolate frog cards.

"Albus look. I got my first chocolate frog card today and guess what you and I were both in there!"

"Oh really? May I see your card?"

"I've got two cards! See!"

Albus frowned and looked unhappily at the two cards. One was for Lightning Snake Speaker and the other was for Harry Potter the boy who lived. Snape laughed at the man.

"Headmaster. Surely you are not jealous of a mere 12 year old?"

"I had to work for years to get just one chocolate frog card." He frowned.

The boy giggled.

"I'm sorry Albus."

"Nothing to apologize for my boy. It is just the way of things. Would you like a lemon drop?"

"Okay!" The boy said taking the yellow sweet and popping it in his mouth.

Black sat down right next to Snape obviously trying to get near his godson. However he was torn away by Poppy who was spitting mad at him for escaping her clutches. She dragged him back up to the infirmary, Lightning waved goodbye promising to visit soon. After that he turned to the group.

"Wizarding towns are lots of fun. Did you know there's a magical candy shop?"

Albus Dumbledore took control of the conversation and began pumping lightning both with information about sweets and the sweets themselves. When dinner finished Lightning was primed full of more sugar than he knew to do with. The boy was practically vibrating.

"Sevrus! Should I cast a spell to make sure Padfoot stays in the hospital wing till he's all better?"

"I think that would be quite a nice idea. Let's go visit him to say goodnight." Snape said with a grin, this was much too easy.

Lightning practically dragged him to the hospital wing where Black was back in the hospital clothing trying to convince Pomphrey of his health. When they burst in both looked at him and Lightning smiled.

"Hi Poppy!" Lightning said. "I came to say goodnight to Padfoot is that okay?"

"Five minutes, he has already done too much today." She declared.

The boy nodded and pulled Severus over to the bed that Black was in. The man was still upset about Lightning obviously liking him more and Snape had a difficult time holding in his glee.

"Padfoot, this is my best friend Sevrus." Lightning declared. "He's really nice and you're going to be nice to him right?"

"Huh?"

"You'll be nice to Sevrus? I don't want anyone to be mean to him."

"Did you say he was your best friend?" The man sputtered.

Lightning nodded empathetically. Severus raised an eyebrow in question at Sirius Black who was looking in between the two.

"So what will it be Black?" Severus asked his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Are you going to be nice to me? Lightning is very quick at coming to my defense. You should see what happened to the Wyvern."

"Lightning, Snivellous isn't a good person. He…he followed Voldemort and he…"

The air temperature dropped significantly in the room at the man's pronouncement. Severus looked down to see a look of pure rage on his friend's face. Oh this was not going to be at all pleasant, for Black.

"What did you call him?" Lightning demanded. "That didn't sound like a nice name."

"What? I called him Snivellous it's…"

"Not a nice name." The boy finished. "Don't ever call him that again."

Then before the man could ask for an explanation Lightning waved his hand in a sweeping motion. Severus felt the magic pass through him and he knew whatever Lightning had done it was powerful. Then he was being pulled out of the room in the tight grip of a 12 year old. When they left the hospital he could feel the boy's hands trembling and he looked down and saw the sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Sevrus. He shouldn't have called you that."

"It's quite alright, I'm used to it…"

"You shouldn't be. It's not a nice name, I shouldn't be used to people calling me Freak…"

Oh. His grip tightened on the boy's hand and he said nothing as they went back to his quarters. When they were finally inside he found himself sitting on the couch with the boy leaning into him.

"Why did he call you a mean name?"

"Sirius Black and I have never liked each other. We were enemies in school, that name was one he called me quite a bit as a student." Snape answered honestly.

"Oh. Will he call me names?"

"I doubt it. Black seems to like you quite a bit."

"But what if he does?"

Snape had no answer to that.

"What did you do to him?"

"I'm…not sure." Lightning admitted. "I just felt so upset and I didn't want him to ever say anything mean ever again."

"I've never seen you do magic without having an express purpose."

"Most of the things I do are on accident. When I blew up the Wyvern it was the same thing. I just felt angry."

Snape nodded in understanding.

"Well whatever you did it is reversible so no need to feel guilty. Tomorrow we can find out what happened and decide how to undo it." Severus said.

"Okay." The boy agreed sadly. "I really liked Padfoot but he…he was mean."

Severus felt conflicted. He knew what he said now would have profound consequences. If he told the boy that since Black was mean he didn't have to forgive him or speak with him again. He could finally win one over Black. But Lightning wasn't an object, he was a person and the idea of winning him over from Black felt wrong. Yes years ago in their Hogwarts years he wouldn't have hesitated but now, now things were different.

He wasn't a kind person, neither was Black, no one was completely good. Lightning couldn't…he couldn't expect people to always be kind. Could he? He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Lightning. No one is nice all the time." Severus explained.

"You are."

"No, there are times when I am cruel, it is more often than you think. Not even you are kind all the time. Think of the wyvern were you kind to him?"

"You're not kind to enemies." The boy scoffed.

"Black and I are enemies." Severus explained. "We have been for a long time. It would only make sense we would say rude things to each other."

The boy looked at him in confusion.

"Is he one of the boys who teased you in school?"

"Yes as is Lupin. However we were able to get over our differences given enough time and motivation. It will require more time for Sirius Black and I to put aside our hatred."

"You'll try right?"

"I will try." Snape promised. "I cannot promise it will work out. There is a lot of bad blood between us Lightning. For now however we must get you to sleep. Tomorrow I'd like your help in the potions lab."

"Kay Sevrus. I'll take off the curse I put on Padfoot tomorrow."

"That seems responsible. Goodnight Lightning."

"Night Sevrus."

Severus stood and tucked the boy in once his shoes were off. After that he turned down the lights and went to his own room. Instead of going to bed however he went directly to the floo and flooed to the hospital wing. The room was dark and clearly everyone inside was supposed to be sleeping. He hardly cared though as he turned the lights on with a vicious wave of his wand. He cast a muffilato charm on the room to keep from alerting Poppy to the intruder and strode up to the bed.

"Black wake up you insipid fool."

"I'm not asleep Snivellous." The man said sitting up.

"You moronic piece of garbage has Azkaban taught you nothing?" He snarled hoisting the man up by his hospital gown. "Don't ever call me that again while Lightning is within a 50 mile radius if you want to have any semblance of a real relationship with the boy."

"I'll call you whatever you want!"

"Shut up and listen." Snape growled. "Lightning thought his human name was Freak for 7 years. His abusive guardians only called him cruel names, if you call anyone a cruel name he will equate them with you. Tell me do you want to be the same as child abusers in his mind?"

Any defiance he had seen before in the man was gone.

"Fine Snape. Then how in the hell do you suggest we interact?"

Snape dropped him making him fall back onto the bed with a plop. He roughly grabbed a chair and sat down next to the bed.

"We can no longer fight as we did. Lightning will not stand for it. As much as I think you deserved to go to Azkaban for nearly murdering me as a sixth year I have to let it go."

"It was just a prank!"

"You lured a sixteen year old in front of an uncaged Werewolf you moron! That is not a prank that is attempted homicide. It is the equivalent of taking a teenager and placing him in front of Voldemort and hoping everything works out so you can laugh about it later!"

"Moony isn't like Voldemort."

"When Remus Lupin is in his werewolf form you better believe he is just as vicious." Snape cut in acidly. "You were injured by him enough times to know."

Snape sighed again, why was he always so confrontational around Black?

"Black, Lightning has requested that we do our level best to get along. I do not want to force him to choose between us and I doubt you want that either."

"You still haven't answered my question. What do you propose we do?"

"We have to get along. Hell act friendly with one another."

"I don't want to do that." Black said.

"Do you think I want to? Moments ago I called you a moronic piece of garbage. We have no choice unless we want to put Lightning in emotional distress. You saw what he did tonight. I don't even know what he cursed you with."

"Can't you tell?" The man asked tiredly. "I can't move my own limbs. He paralyzed me. Pomphrey says I'm fine and that it'll be easily reversed in the morning."

"That is a bit overdone." Snape admitted. "I'll need to start teaching Lightning emotional control to avoid such things from ever happening again."

"What do you mean?"

"He was able to paralyze without planning and merely waving his hand. The boy handles great power and for the most part uses it responsibly. Someone he trusts, namely me, will have to teach him to not use his emotions to cloud his judgements or we are going to have a lot of paralyzed people."

"No not that. You thought him paralyzing me was overdone?"

"You called me a name, hardly an offense worthy having you lose the ability to walk." He deadpanned.

"But when we were in Hogwarts, anytime we pranked you you'd always retaliate with full force. We'd put a potion in your breakfast food turning your hair into a hot pink afro and you'd send tripping hexes at us till one of us broke our face and landed in the hospital wing."

"As a teen I lacked both friends, a sense of humor, and the ability to ignore things I didn't like. What you saw as a harmless prank I saw as a personal attack that signaled many more to come. I had no one in my house to buddy-buddy up with unless I desired to serve the Dark Lord. The only time anyone spoke to me was to make fun of me for your harmless pranks Black." Snape snarled. "I was either ignored or teased, of course I attacked back. These weren't harmless pranks to me. It wasn't like when you pranked Potter to have cat ears instead of human ones. You all could laugh and have a good time, had I received cat ears I would have been poked fun at for hours before being hexed by my housemates for not being vigilant enough."

"So you attacked physically? Hardly an appropriate response." Sirius sneered back.

"I was a teenager, stupid and angry. I'll not try and justify my actions to you someone who makes decisions based on their emotions constantly." Snape snapped back. "You had everything as a teen I can hardly expect you to understand."

"Oh I had everything?" The man demanded sarcastically. "Sure I mean having everything means going home each summer to cruel words and hexes, being forced to learn the darkest magic possible and watching your younger brother fall to the darkness. Yes, that's everything. Compared to me Snape you had everything."

Snape knew they were about to have a contest to see who had the more tragic childhood but he could hardly care.

"Tell me Black. Did your father murder your mother right in front of your eyes? Did he beat you bloody every time he touched liquor? Did your father spend the money you earned for food on more alcohol? Did you grow up in poverty, constantly slighted for the state of your clothing and the bruises on your face?" He snarled. "Forgive me if I don't pity you, you pretentious fool. Not all of us had a group of friends to strengthen us during the school year. A place to hide."

Sirius was looking at him with wide eyes.

"How in hell did you survive that Severus?"

"I didn't. I became a bitter angry man who joined the first group of people to show me a scrap of kindness. Lily was the only thing that kept me from going completely dark. Without her I joined Voldemort and killed dozens, tortured dozens more. What I did to you and your fool friends in Hogwarts has nothing compared to what I did there under his service."

The man looked at him with newfound understanding, something that made Severus sick to his stomach. They're not meant to come to an understanding with one another. They were supposed to agree to hate each other in private not, Merlin, become friends. He put on his best glare hoping to avoid such things but he knew it was too late. He had shared too much and now Black thought he understood him. Damn.

"So, all of this was just a misunderstanding? You thought everyone was against you and we thought you were an evil dirty Slytherin?"

"I suppose if you wanted to surmise it that way. Then yes our entire relationship is based on a misunderstanding."

"Did you want to fix it?"

"Fix what?" Severus said before scoffing. "Black you cannot possibly asking me to be friends."

"Of course that's what I'm asking. If it weren't for you I'd still be in Azkaban. Remus told me you were the one who found Lightning in the first place. If not for you I'd still be rotting there going out of my mind with guilt."

"That's true. Although by that train of logic you could also thank Dumbledore for placing Lightning with abusive guardians, which meant he would run away and grow up in the forbidden forest where I could find him. Or you could thank the abusive guardians who were so horrid they forced a 4 year old to apparate." Severus said. "The person you should thank is Lightning. He did something out of selfless intent and it ended with your freedom in Azkaban. Everything I have ever done is for my own purposes."

"That can't be true." Sirius said. "I see the way you act around Lightning and from what Moony has told me, you do things to make my godson happy for no other reason than to make him happy."

"That is slander on my person, I won't stand for it."

To his surprise his vitriol was met with loud laughter. The man was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face from exertion. When Black finally calmed down enough to form a coherent sentence he spoke with Snape with a happy glint in his eye.

"You are much too funny Severus."

Severus? Who gave him the right to call him by his first name? Friends did that and they were not friends.

"I'll play nice from now on Severus." The man continued. "I'll treat you just like I treated my other friends. I can only hope you do the same, after all you wouldn't want to make Lightning choose."

"What are you playing at?"

"We are going to be friends whether you like it or not." Black threatened.

"We aren't going to be doing anything but ignoring each other so that Lightning doesn't have to see our fights."

"Oh no. We are going to get along, go to quidditch games together and then get a drink at the pub afterward. The harder you fight against it the harder I'll fight for it."

"We shall see." Severus said before standing and stalking towards the fireplace. He turned he lights down and ended the muffling charm.

Right as he was going to go back to his rooms he heard Black say the most asinine thing he had ever heard. "Sweet Dreams Severus." _I'll sweet dreams him._ He flooed down to his rooms and got ready for bed. It was late at night and he just wanted to sleep. That night dreams haunted him, dreams of him being social with Black of all people. He was sitting around a large table, it was huge big enough to hold at least ten people if not more. The table was made of a deep red wood and it as clear once that it was a fancy thing, now it was covered in the gashes and scratches of long term use.

Surrounding the table were mismatched chairs, none of them the same style and all of different levels of use, none of them new. There were strange paintings filling up the walls. In the dream it looked as if dinner had just finished and that the table had only been half cleaned up. Laughter echoed through the home that he was in. Yes it was most certainly a home and for some reason it felt like it was his home. Though why he couldn't possibly say. He would never own such terrible furniture or such a messy table. Nor would he covers his wall in such garish paintings.

The armchair he was sitting in was rather comfortable and it was a deep emerald color. He knew without knowing how that this was his chair, the chair he sat in every day. Someone entered the dining room and for a moment he could have sworn it was James Potter. No James Potter had had brown eyes, the adult figure before him was Lightning.

"Severus?" Lightning asked. "Are you coming?"

"Of course I am Harry. What do you take me for?"

"Someone trying to get out of family game night. You can't skip every week you know. The kids love to see their grandpa. You didn't think you'd get out of this so easily did you?"

Severus stood and rolled his eyes. He followed Harry down through the twisting hallways. He entered a living room that had the same homelike feel that the rest of the house did. There on the mismatched couches were Draco Malfoy, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Ronald Weasley, the Weasley Twins and groups of children. There were other adults he didn't recognize included the woman he was seated next to who had her arm around his waist.

The rest of the evening was spent in games and storytelling. Severus couldn't ever remember laughing this much and with Black of all people. His stomach almost hurt from it all. The living room was filled to the brim with people. Most of whom he didn't recognize but he knew he loved them and they loved him. As the evening was winding down to a close Severus found himself surrounded by small children. The youngest of which had hair that was switching between a deep black and a bright green.

"Grandpa Sev!" One of the little urchins yelled. "Tell us a story!"

"Yeah you're stories are always the best!"

"You little imps are just trying to be allowed to stay up past your bedtime." He accused with a happy glint in his eyes.

"Maybe." One of them admitted. "And you'll help right?"

"I suppose I will. What story would you like to hear?"

"The one where you met Uncle Harry for the first time!" The green haired one requested. "I like that one best."

Severus found him nodding in agreement and settling all of the children down with a practiced ease.

"Once upon a time there was an angry potions master." He began.

Snape woke up with a gasp and covered in sweat. In his chest was a sense of gaping loss. He checked the time and realized the sun was about to rise. What had that been? He had known it was a dream the whole time and yet it had seemed too real. The woman he had kissed and called 'darling'. The children he had held and the laughter. That all-encompassing feeling of home, something he had so rarely felt. What had happened to him? Why did he feel like he had just lost something so precious?

Snape got up and took a shower. His mind going over every detail of the all too clear dream. By the time he was dressed and ready for the day he had decided to ignore the dream and the feelings it caused. Dreams hardly ever meant anything anyway. He greeted Lightning who looked ready to bolt to the great hall for breakfast.

"How did you sleep Lightning?"

"Really good. I had a nice dream."

"Oh? What about?"

"I was in my home, just like I always imagined it. The place I want to live in when I'm big. You were there and so was Padfoot and Moony, lots of other people too. All of my snake friends were there too. I felt happy and warm." The boy explained. "Are dreams supposed to be so nice?"

"They can be."

"I liked my dream. Did you have a dream?"

"Yes. Mine was quite happy as well." Severus admitted. "Now let's get breakfast before ending whatever magic you did on Black. Then you can help me in the potions lab. Is that acceptable?"

"Okay Sevrus." Lightning agreed before grabbing his hand.

A jolt went through him as the words from the adult Harry in his dream went through him again.

"Severus, you didn't think you could get out of this so easily did you?" No, no he didn't.


	21. Thirteenth Year

**Spooky chapter this time! It's time for Voldemort to return and shake things up. Read and Review to let me know what you think of it.**

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Tom Marvolo Riddle was born in the middle of the day. December 31st, at 12:03 pm in the year 1926. Unlike many babies Tom's birth was not celebrated by anyone. No mother wished to hold him and no father felt proud of him. In fact it was just a few months after his birth that Tom was left all alone. His mother passing on from a broken heart and his father having forsaken him long before his birth.

Tom was taken and dropped off at an orphanage. Life was cruel and he learnt at a very early age to kill or be killed. The little boy had a vindictive streak a mile wide and it seemed that unlike the rest of his fellow borders in the dingy little orphanage he could _make_ things happen. Snakes told him their secrets and he could levitate things with his mind. He used these abilities to scare and torment other children. They deserved to be as miserable as he was after all. He had no one to love or care for him. Unlike these children who had known love Tom had never know that. So he hurt them like the world had hurt him.

He was born and he grew up during the slightly peaceful interim of the two world wars. At the age of 11 Tom had discovered that his strange abilities came from his mother and there were many others like him. Tom looked for acceptance in the magical world at first. Yet he could not find it.

No one was his equal, he was powerful, more powerful than any of his peers. He was too smart and all of his peers had loving families. No one wanted to get to know the angry orphan Tom. At first he told himself it did not bother him but in his first year when whispers of about the 'creepy boy Tom' arose he realized that he couldn't make enemies of everyone. Until he knew all that magic had to offer they were just as dangerous as he.

So he made friends with every single person he could. He was manipulative and charming. He realized that this was the only way to get acceptance. To be the monarch. He was 13 when World War 2 started and unlike many children followed the actions of Hitler and Mussolini with unhidden interest. World War 2 ended when he was 19, he did not care who won truly in the muggle war but he did care about the tactics used.

Only a few years later, Tom Riddle an angry boy with a vindictive streak and an unhealthy interest in the dark arts became something much worse. The transformation took years and only truly started when he was 17, the first time he took a life. However when he was 22 Tom Riddle died an ignoble death and in his place emerged Lord Voldemort. Tom Riddle knew he was powerful enough to escape death and he wanted everyone to know it.

He did many dark things in his lifetime. He murdered tortured and raped anyone he felt the desire to. He branded wizards making them his slaves. Worst of all is that he used these evil acts to split his own soul. At the age of 53 he had been causing fear and death in Europe for 31 years. He was powerful, he was feared and best of all he was immortal. That was until a scrawny new follower told him of a prophecy.

The one to defeat him was to be born soon. Tom Riddle was not a stupid man. No he knew that he must remove this threat from existence before it could grow into adulthood and even come close to competing with him for power. So he identified the child and he attacked. At the age of 54 he broke into the Potter home. He killed the despicable Auror who had escaped his clutches three times before and walked up the stairs.

On that Halloween night just two months before his birthday he killed a weak insignificant girl who defied him three times and then raised his wand to remove his greatest threat. Except it didn't work. The boy protected by a mother's love something Tom Riddle had never possessed repelled him and his killing magic. His soul already in shreds split once more and he fled. The boy, a mere infant had defeated him. His body had been destroyed in the aftermath and the wizarding world rejoiced the defeat of evil.

Except he wasn't gone. Wounded, yes. Without a body? Oh yes. But was he weak? No, he was going to return to his body and when he did he was going to make that little infant pay. At the age of 65 he was ready, very ready to hunt down that little boy. He had been stewing for 11 years on revenge. He was also ready to hunt down another little boy. A Parselmouth like himself, powerful and regal. The boy would bend to his will and follow in his footsteps.

His rise to resurrection began easily with the possession of a young muggleborn wizard. The wizard had just graduated from Durmstrang and he was trying to prove himself. Voldemort found the young boy and twisted his mind and took control. He learned of the state of the world, about the curing of werewolves and the disappearance of his one true enemy. He used the weak minded wizard to gather the things he needed to return to his body.

So that Halloween 11 years after his first defeat Lord Voldemort rose again. It required the blood of an enemy, not hard to take, the flesh of a servant and the bones of his father. He took the flesh of a young impressionable wizard he had possessed and the blood of the auror he killed. The bones of his father were easily stolen and added into the cauldron. When he emerged it wasn't to great fanfare but Lord Voldemort hardly cared.

The fanfare would come later, the young wizard's name was Borris Eddings, a mudblood who's will and mind was so weak that he made the perfect lapdog. His first act as a newly reborn Dark Lord was to kill the little wizard. The boy was weak and his blood unclean. He did not deserve power or even to live.

At the age of 55 Lord Voldemort alone in a grave yard began to plan. He was going to hunt down the half-blood who dared to defy him and he was going to acquire an apprentice. The first thing he needed to do was call his servants to see who was still loyal. Voldemort took the wand of Borris, he did not have his own yet, and he called them. He only wondered who would answer.

He was rewarded when in thirty minutes the graveyard was full of cowering wizards. There were many missing, no doubt they were in Azkaban but that was hardly a problem. He could storm the gates of that place at any time. He looked around at his servants and began his speech. He made them fear for their very lives, that was what he did best. Even the bravest among them cowered. He cast torture curses and dominated them. Then he sent them away bleeding and weak.

They would return and when they did they would be prepared to dominate the wizarding world once more. Tom Riddle had died and become Lord Voldemort and he had once more escaped death. He would never die and the one boy who had the ability to defeat him would never live to see his thirteenth year.


	22. Happy Halloween Sev!

**Hey everyone! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in forever. If I'm honest I'll blame my own forgetful tendencies and the fact that I'm taking 4 science classes this semester and they are kicking my butt! I hope this chapter clears up any confusion that you might have had about the last chapter. Remember to review this chapter, it really motivates me to update faster. Best of luck to all of those who have finals coming up, mine are next week and at this point I'd rather face Voldemort than try and take them!**

This was the first happy Halloween Severus had had in years. In fact the last happy Halloween he'd had was when he was 15, the last he spent with Lily. Lily had insisted they both dress up and Severus had dressed as a vampire. One of the few Slytherins to do so, not that Severus had been surprised by his classmates hatred of him by his fifth year. He had made his stance on Muggleborns clear and they hated him for it.

So it was with a heavy heart that a week ago he discovered that someone had told Lightning about Halloween. He supposed that it had been Black but he couldn't prove it. The 12 year old had come to him ask with wide eyes asked if it would be wrong to celebrate Halloween even if it's the day his parents died. That of course couldn't stand by in Severus' book after assuring the boy that his parents would want him to celebrate the holiday the boy had asked why Severus didn't celebrate it.

Severus didn't celebrate it because the day Lily died was the day he felt all of life's meaning slip away. It occurred now to Severus years later how creepy that was. But at the time the only thing he had loved was Lily. He had pinned his life on her and driven her away. After her death Albus had done his best to bring Severus out of that state and had nearly succeeded. Severus considered himself friends with most of the staff at Hogwarts and Albus more like a father figure.

The final nail in the coffin however was Lightning. Letting that small boy into his life had broken down all the walls he'd built up. So it was with a not so heavy heart that he agreed to play dress up that Halloween. When Lightning arrived that morning to the castle it was with excitement. Severus was waiting for him at the gates, as was Black and Lupin.

Albus had given the two idiots jobs here. Lupin was the new care of magical creatures professor and Black taught the flying class. Both of the older professors having retired that year. Severus had never hated the man more for anything. The two were constantly talking to him. At least once a week Lupin would be done in the dungeons to ask about his potions. Three times a week Black would invite him down to Hogsmeade for a drink. They sat with him at every lunch and tried to get him to participate in their 'stimulating' conversations. He only spoke with them when Lightning was in the castle.

Lightning had moved back into the forbidden forest. Severus had succeeded in creating a potent brew of the cure. Now all of those snakes instead of curing 210 people every 3 days that same amount of venom could cure 2000 or more a day. Globally the magical governments of the world had been putting together free international portkeys for werewolves and they were arriving by the hundreds every day.

So Lightning would spend his day in Hogwarts curing Werewolves and then in the evening he'd go home and spend time with his snakes. Severus still got to spend the most time with him as he was the one who delivered the potions every few hours. Black and Lupin tried to spend time with him at lunch and dinner but Lightning was consistently busy.

However today he had taken a day off. It was Halloween and he wanted to dress up like human children did. Albus had sent messages to portkey centers to let them know that anyone they sent to Hogwarts today would not be cured as Lightning was taking the day to recover slightly. After all the boy was curing hundreds of people of day that was a lot of magic for one person to consistently expend day after day.

"Good morning Sevrus!" Lightning shouted as he walked up the steps to the castle. "How are you?"

"I am well Lightning. Thank you for asking, how are you?"

"I'm feeling a little sad."

"Understandable."

"Hey pup!" Black cut in. "You ready to start the Halloween fun?"

Severus kept himself from rolling his eyes. The man was so excitable and he had the attention span of a gnat. No wonder the Gryffindor was a dog animagus. Lightning nodded excitedly and Severus kept the smile off his face. Thirty minutes later the boy was outfitted in a pirate costume. The entire school was dressed up in costumes. It seemed that Lupin and Black had manipulated kids into dressing up. There were pirates, vampires, hags, inferi, and all sorts of scary things filling the castle.

Albus had charmed baskets to float around the school. The baskets were filled with candy and were magically refilled every time someone took some. Severus hated teaching children in general but children hyped up on sugar were the worst. The only thing that kept him sane was the knowledge that Lightning was very happy. He was even interacting with the other students like a peer.

Today he ate at the Slytherin table with Draco. Draco was dressed up as some famous wizard whom Severus didn't care to identify. Lightning even attended classes with Draco. The boy was exceedingly protective of his snake speaking friend. Apparently Lightning had told him of his real name and Draco seemed to think it imperative that his identity be kept secret. Severus couldn't help but agree.

Most of the students either stared at the snake king in awe or were afraid of him. Lightning had hard time speaking to anyone who wasn't a Weasley, Granger or Malfoy. Malfoy seemed particularly happy to be friends with Lightning. Probably because Lightning was the boy's only real friend, aside from the Weasleys with whom he was on rocky terms with. Today however Lightning was just another child in a castle full of children and that was truly all the boy had ever wanted.

That night Lightning met Severus in the dungeons and asked if he could stay the night on his couch. Apparently the boy had a really strong head ache and didn't feel very well.

"I don't feel so well Sevrus." The boy said rubbing his head.

"That's what you get for eating so much candy. Come in. Where is Black and Lupin?" He asked with a light sneer.

"They went to get something from Poppy. Medicine I think."

"Nonsense. I have perfectly good potions here."

"That's what I told them." Lightning stated. "I didn't want to go to the infirmary but they didn't seem to listen."

"Get onto the couch and I'll get you a headache draught."

"Thank you Sevrus."

Severus rolled his eyes. He knew the boy could properly pronounce his name. He'd ignored it earlier but now he wondered why the boy continued to call him Sevrus. He summoned a headache draft and looked at it to ensure that the draft would work properly. He opened it and handed it to the boy. Lightning sniffed it once before gulping it down.

"You should start feeling better within the next minute or so." Severus stated. "Would you answer a question for me?"

"Sure."

"Why do you call me Sevrus? My name is Severus."

"Do you want me to stop?" Lightning asked.

"I'm merely curious."

"You have lots of names." Lightning stated as if that would answer the question.

"I only have the one."

"No. The students call you Professor Snape and lots of other names I won't repeat." Lightning began. "My mum called you Sev, Albus and Minnie call you Severus and Padfoot and Moony call you Snape. That's a lot of names."

"What is your point?"

"I call you Sevrus. It's my name for you. It's special cause no one else calls you that. I like that cause it's different. No one else is going to call you Sevrus, just me."

"And you think you need to have a different name for me?"

Lightning nodded before frowning.

"My head is hurting worse."

Severus frowned and pulled out his wand and cast a diagnostic spell. It didn't show anything untoward, not that that meant much when it came to headaches.

"Where does it hurt?"

"On my scar." Lightning said moving his bangs out of the way to point out a pulsing red scar.

Severus hissed. That…was not a good sign.

"When did it start hurting?"

"It started itching a few weeks ago but it didn't start hurting really bad until a few hours ago."

Severus quickly rolled up his left sleeve and gasped at the now nearly full dark mark. How had he not noticed this? The Dark Lord was returning and soon. Lightning was looking at the dark mark in interest.

"That is the mark of a follower of the Dark Lord. You remember that I told you I spied on him?"

"Yes. Why does it have a snake on it?"

"Voldemort can speak to snakes just like you can but unlike you he uses that ability for evil."

Lightning's face took on a harsh look for a moment before his eyes filled with pain and he grabbed his forehead. At the same time Severus' mark burned awake and he grabbed his arm. The call, he had all but forgotten what that felt like. The burning, crawling awful sensation that took away his concentration for a moment. Lightning was whimpering and crying in pain and Severus saw that his scar was open and seeping blood. Severus stood up and stumbled over to the floo. He grabbed some green powder and floo called Albus.

"Albus. Get down here now! It's an emergency!"

The old man appeared within moments his face grave.

"Albus. He's back." Severus said showing the man his flaring mark.

"Are you ready to return Severus? I won't send you there if you feel the danger too high. You are more important than any information you may get."

Severus took in a deep breath. Before all of this he wouldn't have believed the man but he knew Albus meant it. He nodded and roughly summoned his death eater robes.

"Watch Lightning Albus. His scar reacted when I was called."

"Oh my."

"He had already been given a headache draft and it had no effect. You cannot give him a sleeping draught for another thirty minutes without risking negative health effects. Only give him the sleeping draught if something worse happens." Snape instructed as he began pulling the robes on. "Call Madam Pomphrey down here and get him someplace comfortable and secure. We don't know how far this connection goes. He may very well have visions or feel the after effects of curses Voldemort casts."

Albus' face was grave. Between the two of them Severus had more knowledge in the study of curse scars. Severus knew quite a bit about curse scars from his studies of the dark arts over the years. Severus looked over to Lightning who was looking at him with wide fear filled eyes.

"Don't go, Sevrus." He pleaded.

"I must Lightning. We all have our jobs to help protect the world and this is mine. I will return I promise. Stay here and be brave alright? Do everything Poppy tells you to do. Don't leave the castle until I return. Voldemort is going to want to find Harry Potter first thing and you need to stay safe. I'll be safer if I don't have to worry about you understand?"

"Promise you'll come back?" He asked his voice piteous.

"I swear it." Severus said giving the boy's should a squeeze. "Albus let the wolf and the mutt know about Lightning's curse scar. If they want access to my rooms you may give it to them but they are not allowed in my lab or my bedroom."

"Go Severus and be safe."

Severus picked up his white mask and left the rooms at a run. He took three or four secret passage ways and cast a notice-me-not charm on himself to ensure the students didn't see him. Once he was outside he sprinted to the apparition point. The moment he was at the point he slipped the mask on and turned on his heel. Severus gasped in exhaustion when he appeared in an unknown forest. That had been quite the distance and he knew that without the magic of the mark he would not have made it.

As it was he struggled to walk upright through the forest and into the clearing with how extensive his exhaustion was. Severus was glad that the mask covered his face for no one would be able to see his face of horror. Quickly he strengthened his occulmency barriers and began to bury everything important, most importantly the knowledge that Lightning and Harry Potter were the same. Any conversations that spoke of the two in the same breath were buried deeply beneath more personal secrets. He'd rather Voldemort see his first time with a woman than learn of Lightning's identity.

He found himself in his position in the inner circle as if he'd done this only yesterday. On his left was Lucius and on his right Nott. Both men were clearly as exhausted as he. There at the front of the circle not five feet from him was Voldemort, at his feet the dead body of a young wizard Severus didn't recognize.

Voldemort's skin was bone white, unnaturally so. He lacked any kind of body hair and he looked to be mostly bone. His eyes were sacks of glowing red liquid that didn't seem to have a visible pupil. The robes he was wearing were ragged and old. The clearing smelt of death and blood. It took all of Severus' skills to remain impassive. It took fifteen minutes for Voldemort to decide that anyone who was going to arrive was here.

Severus hardly listened as the monster began to wax poetic about his triumphant return and as he berated them for their inability to raise him back to life themselves. Apparently the body over by the cauldron was a muggleborn wizard who had been tricking into raising the monster back into life. By the time Voldemort had finished speaking most everyone was shaking in fear and Severus was sure that some of the younger ones had voided their bladders.

It was then that the torture started. Severus himself was hit with the cruciatus 4 separate times. The pain was just as horrid as he remembered, all the more poignant because he knew that Lightning might be feeling the same pain. Eventually after what felt like an eternity Severus began to send followers away one at a time. Severus stood his limbs screaming in pain waiting for his dismissal. Except it never came.

"Severus." The man hissed. "My dear potions master."

"My Lord." Severus said dipping his head.

"You are still loyal to me are you not Severus? What have you been doing?"

"Following your last orders My Lord." Severus said kneeling down at the monster's feet. "You ordered me to gain the trust of Dumbledore and stay at Hogwarts as his teacher so that I could gather information on the Order for you. I stayed at Hogwarts and continued my mission waiting faithfully for your return. I knew that you would return and that when you did you would want me to be at Dumbledore's right hand."

Severus prayed to every deity that Voldemort would buy it. An eternity passed, which in reality it was closer to 30 seconds, and finally the snake faced man spoke.

"Rise Severus. You are truly loyal to my cause. I see that." The man ordered.

Severus stood ignoring his aching limbs and waited his back ramrod straight.

"Severus. What do you know of Harry Potter?"

Severus had two layers of Occulmency barriers. Voldemort knew of the first outer layer but had never detected the second layer where Severus held and protected his most sensitive knowledge. Severus easily lowered the first barrier and felt Voldemort's slimey mental touch. He barely stopped himself from shivering at the feeling of the man rifling through his mind. He reminded himself that it would only last a while and that that monster in front of him would never find the second barrier. Severus swallowed and spoke.

"He disappeared at the age of four my Lord. He was sent to live with his maternal aunt and uncle. Albus believed that Potter would be safe with his only living relations and sought to create blood wards to protect him from you. It seemed however that the _muggles_ were not willing to cooperate." Severus began allowing his hatred for Lightning's relations to seep through. "He disappeared after three years there. I and a few other Order members were sent to investigate."

Severus brought up the memory of meeting Vernon Dursley and cruelly entering his mind for the information he wanted. He felt sickened when he felt Voldemort's pleasure at the suffering of the muggle.

"The boy's muggle relations had brutally abused him and the boy had run away. He has not been seen since."

"What does Albus believe?"

"Albus believes that the boy is alive. His name still appears on the Hogwarts registry and he was able to send the boy an invitation to Hogwarts on his eleventh birthday. However the muggles kept Potter ignorant of his heritage and wherever the boy was he likely thought it a joke. He did not respond."

Voldemort went through his mind for a while before nodding to himself. It seemed the man believed him.

"What of the rumors I have heard of a young wizard called Lightning?"

Severus felt like making a run for it right at that moment. He knew about Lightning? How? Of course the werewolf cure was the only news anyone could talk about. The latest articles were calling for Lightning to be given an Order of Merlin. Imagine it giving a 12 year old an Order of Merlin. Especially a 12 year who had no concept of the worth of such an honor. Severus forced himself to focus on the topic at hand. He needed to stick to the truth as closely as possible in order to protect both himself and Lightning.

"I was the one who discovered the boy." Severus said honestly. "The boy been living in the forbidden forest in a tree house filled to the brim with different species of snakes. The boy's magic had apparated the boy away at the age of 5 or 6 away from his useless abusive muggle parents. He'd been taken in by a large yellow boa and raised as a snake. He spoke poor English and had little to no concept of most human customs or thoughts."

Voldemort was back in his mind with a fury looking at his memories of meeting Lightning. Severus had of course hidden all of the important, sentimental memories from the man's grasp. Voldemort seemed to run over the memories of the boy speaking Parseltongue to different snakes with a lustful zeal. Severus could feel the man's fanatic desire to have the boy, to own him. He forced himself to speak.

"It took six months, and an attack from a Wyvern to get the boy out of the forest and into the castle. The boy is extraordinarily powerful. So much so that he can do most any magic without a wand. Some magic he does I did not even believe possible." Severus continued. "With the proper training the boy would become an unstoppable force. I know Albus intends on keeping him at Hogwarts to try and mold him but so far the boy has resisted his manipulations. The boy only truly trusts a few people. Myself and the first werewolf he cured, Remus Lupin."

"Curing werewolves Severus?" The man paused his tone faking surprise.

"I apologize my Lord. 8 months ago the boy discovered a cure to Lycanthropy through the use of Parseltongue and certain species of snake, the Asclepius serpent. By this point the boy has cured nearly half of the global population."

Voldemort finally left his mind and seemed to think.

"I will have them both Severus." The man hissed. "Begin teaching Lightning my ways and ensure that he knows of my power. Follow Albus closely and report back to me what information he gets on Potter's whereabouts. Go now."

"Yes my Lord."

Severus turned and swiftly left the clearing. Using the mark as his bearing he apparated back to Hogwarts. He landed on the ground in a heap. He couldn't move. The only thing that had kept him upright was extensive fear and training. Now he was too weak to even keep his eyes open. He needed to get to the castle but he couldn't even send a message asking for help. Severus felt his eyes closing and fought to stay conscious. It was a losing battle however and soon he slipped into a deep unconsciousness in a heap near the edge of the forbidden forest. So much for this being his first happy Halloween.

Hissing was heard around his body as slowly more and more snakes emerged from the bushes around him. The snakes knew who he was. King Lightning had told them all that they could trust the dark two legger who smelt of strange herbs. They smelt him and could tell he was in pain. Slowly the snakes began to plan together.

After fifteen minutes of planning the large snakes began slithering under the unconscious man. The King had ordered them to never enter the castle so they carefully, slowly carried the man towards the hut of the forest guardian. It took nearly an hour to carry the dead weight of the man. When they arrived at the hut of the two legger one of the snakes snuck inside and woke the dog.

The large beast pounced on the snake and tried to grab it with its mouth. The snake managed to get outside uninjured. Moments later the giant forest protector opened the door and looked around his cross bow out and pointing at an imaginary enemy. The snakes were already escaping into the forest glad to have helped a friend of their king. After all the forest guardian would be able to heal the two legger, he could heal any animal.


End file.
